Tag Archives: Society President

A Letter from Our Society President

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Joshua M. Howard, CFA

Spring is here in Minnesota.  Even if the weather occasionally is lousy I still enjoy this time of year, as the first two weeks of April bring the NCAA championship game, the Masters, the home opener for the Twins, the Wild in the NHL playoffs, and the end of another Timberwolves season.  I also seem to enjoy this time of year much more than when I was a CFA candidate, especially as we get closer to Memorial Day.

I apologize for skipping my monthly letter in March – there was way too much basketball to watch. Despite my preoccupation with the Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee, the Northern Iowa Panthers and all the other lower seeds that pulled off upsets, Society staff and volunteers were still providing value-add programming to our members.  Since my last letter the Society has offered multiple lunches, a Distinguished Speaker Series presentation, an After Market Appetizers event at Surly and the Upper Midwest Research Challenge finals.

In mid-March we also hosted the first ever CFA Institute conference held in the upper Midwest, when the Wealth Management conference came to Minneapolis. Almost 200 people from around the world attended the two day event. The presentations included a variety of engaging topics on behavioral finance, fundamental indexing, philanthropy, asset allocation, and many other topics pertinent to a financial advisor. With roughly a quarter of all charterholders now working in wealth management this conference was very relevant to our membership.

Two final thoughts. First, I want to wish the best of luck to the North Dakota State Research Challenge team as they head to Chicago on April 11th to compete in the CFA Institute Research Challenge Super Regionals (and hopefully the International Finals the next day). They did a fabulous job at the Regional finals in February and will be a tough team to beat.

Second, I want to personally thank Kris Kautzman for the work she did for the Society over the past five years.  Many of you knew her through her work on volunteer coordination, member engagement, or with our prep classes. She has moved on to her dream job, combining her non-profit expertise with her love of music, and I wish her all the best.

Joshua M. Howard, CFA

President, CFA Society Minnesota

A Letter from Your Society President – January

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Joshua M. Howard, CFA

The holidays are behind us and the busyness of life has returned for most of us. The same is true for the CFA Society, as we have a number of events on the calendar over the next few weeks. Most importantly we have our signature event of the year next week, the Annual Economic Dinner. This year’s guest speaker is Michael Pettis, a China expert who currently works and writes in Beijing. There are still tickets available and I encourage you to attend if you are able to. In addition to the dinner our calendar is full of other programming as well, including lunches, happy hours and career support, which you can access here Events Calendar.

Also, in case you missed it in December, we have released our Society Annual report and the annual Compensation Survey, which was expanded this year to include many cities in the Midwest. I encourage you to read both. Our Annual report contains our financial statement for the most recent fiscal year, among other information, and as dues paying members I hope you will take the time to review our sources of revenue and how we spend your dues. Less than 30% of our revenue comes from your member dues, though it is still the single largest source of our receipts. We spend just under half of our total revenue on staff, administration and board expenses, with the majority of our expense going directly toward programming and education for our members. The Board takes its fiscal responsibility seriously, and we attempt to offer the highest quality programming to our members while limiting increases to dues and event fees. If you have any questions about our financials please let me know.

The compensation survey is also a valuable resource, whether you are looking for a job, attempting to hire someone or moving to a different part of the region. A special thanks to all who responded to the survey, and to our Advocacy Committee for their work on collecting and analyzing this information. As always, please contact me with any questions. I look forward to seeing many of you at the Economic Dinner next week.

Joshua M. Howard, CFA
President, CFA Society Minnesota

A Letter from Your Society President

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Joshua M. Howard, CFA

I recently returned from the CFA Institute’s Society Leadership Conference, held this year in Hong Kong. This conference is for the Presidents and other Society leaders from all 147 global Societies to come together on an annual basis for conversation and idea generation. Along with a few dozen Institute staff we discussed Institute initiatives, shared ideas, learned about board governance best practices and networked with the global body of charterholders. Two to three representatives of each Society attended the conference; when combined with the Institute staff that were present over 500 people attended this year’s conference.

I wanted to pass along a couple takeaways to you. The first is that the new CFA Institute CEO, Paul Smith, is committed to working in partnership with local Societies across the globe.  He has already increased the flow to Societies of needed financial resources, educational materials, social media toolkits, speaker networks and IT infrastructure, and has demonstrated a strong desire to listen to our needs and concerns. He has made additional funding available to Societies that want to tackle new, innovative projects that the local Society cannot afford on their own, but that further the mission of the CFA Institute and can be replicated across the globe. If anyone in the CFA Society of Minnesota has an idea for a truly original program that could benefit our members and be replicated by other Societies, please share your thoughts with me.

The second takeaway was a reminder that we are a global professional organization, one of the few (possibly only) credentials that is the same around the world. All charterholders have passed the same rigorous exams, in the same language, and all adhere to the same code of conduct, whether we live in Minnesota, Montreal, Shanghai or South Africa. I had lunch one day with Society leaders from Kuwait, Bahrain, Austria and Pittsburgh, followed by a meeting with leaders from Beijing, Japan, Calgary, Korea and Spokane. I discussed annual economic dinner speakers with the President of the CFA Society of Nigeria and had a conversation about board recruiting with a Society leader from Vietnam.

While we all face different challenges in our local markets, the CFA Institute and local CFA Societies are all pursuing the same three goals – maintaining a strong body of knowledge and rigorous credentialing program, delivering member value, and working with employers and regulators to promote ethical behavior and market integrity.

In summary, it is good to remember that “CFA” does not just mean that you passed a series of difficult exams – it also means you are part of a global organization promoting ethics and professional standards around the world.

Josh Howard, CFA
President, CFA Society of Minnesota

P.S. Speaking of passing difficult exams – please join us in welcoming our newest charterholders at the New Charterholder Dinner on November 12th. More information can be found here.