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Guest Speakers

Presentations from leading value investors enhance the value investing skills that are taught in both the Ivey’s Value Investing program as well as the Value Investing and the Search for Value Seminars. Our speaker series allow students the opportunity to see value investors in action.

Practitioners’ involvement in the program is organized in two parts: First, practitioners present their basic approach to value investing and discuss their style; second, they take students through actual investment decisions. This includes decisions to purchase securities, and how large a position to take, or decisions not to purchase securities. Time is allowed at the end for open-ended student questions.

This page also features presentations from the keynote speakers at the Centre's Value Investing Conferences that cover broad areas of interest to the value investing community and to our students.

Upcoming Guest Speakers

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., Toronto, ON, Canada (April 20, 2023, - Fairfax Annual Meeting of Shareholders)

Mr. Watsa, Chairman and CEO, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. has invited Dr. Athanassakos and a group of his Value Investing MBA and HBA students to attend the Fairfax annual meeting of shareholders on Thursday, April 21, 2022 at 9:30 a.m. in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. After the annual meeting, students will have an opportunity to meet Mr. Watsa and his team. Mr. Watsa is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., a financial services holding company, which he took over in 1985. The company, through its subsidiaries, is engaged in property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, as well as investment management. Mr. Watsa is a Chartered Financial Analyst, a graduate of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology with a degree in Chemical Engineering and a holder of an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business of the University of Western Ontario. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Hospital for Sick Children, a member of the Advisory Board for the Richard Ivey School of Business and a member of the Board of Directors of the Royal Ontario Museum Foundation, as well as Chairman of the Investment Committee of St. Paul’s Anglican Church.  Fairfax has been one of the few companies to escape the ravages of the great recession of 2008 as Mr. Watsa and his team had anticipated the credit crisis and had taken the necessary steps to protect Fairfax. Mr. Watsa, also known as the Buffett of the North, had discussed his fears about the markets in a key note speech he gave to The Ben Graham Center of Value Investing First Annual Symposium on Value Investing on May 25, 2007. His key note speech can be viewed here.

For more on Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., see www.fairfax.ca

Co-founder & President, Contra the Heard, Toronto, ON, Canada (May 30, 2023, Seminar on Value Investing and the Search for Value, Toronto, ON, Canada) 

Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, called Mr. Gallander “The most classic of contrarians.” In another article they wrote, “Benj Gallander is widely considered to be Canada’s top authority on contrarian investing.” The National Post stated, “If all the world’s a stage, then Benj Gallander is one of the market’s greatest characters.” Over at the Investor’s Digest magazine, he was featured amongst “Canada’s Best Investors…” In the best-seller “Market Masters: Interviews with Canada’s Top Investors ― Proven Investing Strategies You Can Apply”, Benj was #1 of 28 people on the list. Meanwhile, his portfolio at Contra the Heard Investment Letter has had an annualized return of 19.1 percent over the past ten years, with many of the picks featured in the column, The Contra Guys, for Canada’s national newspaper. Three of his books have become best-sellers and six of his plays have reached the stage.

For more on Contra the Heard, see www.contratheheard.com

Founder, President & Chief Investment Officer, GreensKeeper Asset Management Inc., Oakville, ON, Canada (June 2, 2023, Seminar on Value Investing and the Search for Value, Toronto, ON, Canada) 

Mr. McCloskey founded GreensKeeper Asset Management in 2010 and has more than 27 years of industry experience. He started his career as a lawyer at Aird & Berlis LLP and became a partner four years after joining the firm. His legal career focused on the areas of Corporate Finance and M&A. Michael then joined Sprott Securities (now Cormark Securities) as an investment banker and partner of the firm. He participated in the management-led buyout of the firm from its founder Eric Sprott. At Cormark he led numerous IPOs, debt and equity financings, takeover bids and M&A advisory assignments. Before practising law, Michael earned a B.Sc. (Honours), Mathematics from the University of Western Ontario and also graduated with joint graduate degrees in law and business: J.D., Osgoode Hall Law School / M.B.A. (Honours), Schulich School of Business, York University. Michael is an Ironman finisher, an avid golfer, and a voracious reader. Michael and his wife Marie France live in Lorne Park, Mississauga with their two daughters.

For more on GreensKeeper Asset Management, see www.greenskeeper.ca

Managing Director, U.S. and International Equities, Beutel, Goodman & Company Ltd., Toronto, ON, Canada (January 25, 2024, Ivey Business School, Room 1100, 6:20pm to 8:00pm) 

Mr. Cardoso, MBA, CFA, joined Beutel Goodman in 2013 and has over 20 years of investment experience. He is a portfolio manager and research analyst specializing in U.S. and global equities. Prior to joining Beutel Goodman, Rui spent several years as a portfolio manager at CI Investments and KBSH Capital Management. Rui is a graduate of York University and a CFA charterholder.

For more on Beutel, Goodman & Company Ltd., see www.beutelgoodman.com

President, Lewin Capital Management Ltd., Vancouver, BC, Canada (March 8, 2024, Ivey Business School, Room 1100, 6:20pm to 8:00pm) 

Mr. Lewin is an investor who has managed equity portfolios for his entire career. He spent his first five years as a partner at Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel and the next ten years as a partner and senior equity analyst at Phillips, Hager & North Investment Management.  He then went on to establish his own company, Lewin Capital Management (LCM), which recently celebrated its ten-year anniversary. Dan has a broad range of experience managing money.  Over the years he has interviewed the senior management of more than one thousand companies, managed a US small cap deep value fund, traded several billion in fixed income securities, created and implemented a strategy to immunize the liabilities of defined benefit pension plans, and managed equities for institutional, high net worth and mutual fund clients. By far the most rewarding and challenging experience of Dan’s career has been building his own investment firm. Dan founded LCM in 2008 with the objective of earning competitive absolute returns for a limited number of large clients, utilizing a focused approach and a conservative definition of risk.  According to surveys of Canadian institutional managers, LCM’s ten-year results since inception beat 95% of Canadian Equity Funds and 75% of US Equity Funds. Dan is a Leslie Wong Fellow, he earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree with Honors from UBC in 1993, and obtained his Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1996. In addition to volunteering as a counselor for the UBCPMF, Dan is on the board of the Pennask Lake Fishing and Game Club, and previously served as Chairman of the Down Syndrome Research Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides research and programs for children and their families. He lives in Vancouver with his wife and three children.       

For more on Lewin Capital Management Ltd., see www.lewincapital.com

Past Guest Speakers