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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

Vice President, 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. Parker joined Beutel Goodman in 2006 and has over 15 years of investment experience. He is a portfolio manager and research analyst specializing in U.S. and global equities. Prior to joining Beutel Goodman, KC was senior partner in an Ottawa-based technology firm. KC is a graduate of Simon Fraser University and a CFA charterholder.

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

Portfolio Manager and Head of Fixed Income, Picton Mahoney Asset Management, Toronto, ON, Canada (February 1, 2024, Ivey Business School, Room 1100, 6:20pm to 8:00pm) 

Mr. Mesman is a partner and lead portfolio manager of Picton Mahoney Asset Management’s income strategies. Phil’s previous investment experience includes working through the ranks at Scotiabank as a commercial lender, at Merrill Lynch as a proprietary analyst and trader, at Greywolf Capital as a credit analyst and at Harris Investments as managing director and portfolio Manager. Having joined the investment industry in 1993 and being a second-generation credit specialist, Phil brings extensive experience in all facets of income investing. Phil graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a degree in economics and is a CFA charterholder.

For more on Picton Mahoney Asset Management, see pictonmahoney.com

President, Lewin Capital Management Ltd., Vancouver, BC, Canada (March 7, 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

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., Toronto, ON, Canada (April 11, 2024 - 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 April 11, 2024 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

President and Portfolio Manager, Lorne Steinberg Wealth Management Inc., Montreal, Québec, Canada (June 4, 2024, Seminar on Value Investing and the Search for Value)

Mr. Steinberg founded his firm in 2009. From the outset, the firm has been focused on creating value for clients by responsibly growing their capital while safeguarding their assets.  The research team uses a fundamental approach to investing, and a strong price discipline, with a bias for businesses that meet strict financial criteria. Prior to founding the firm, he was President and Chief Investment Officer of AGF’s investment counsel business in Montreal, Magna Vista Investment Management Ltd., which he joined in 1999. Before Magna Vista he spent 10 years at Lafferty, Harwood and Partners, where he began as a research analyst and was later responsible for the fixed income desk. Lorne received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his BA from McGill University. He has been a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder since 1996.    

For more on Lorne Steinberg Wealth Management Inc., see https://steinbergwealth.com

Co-Founder & Managing Partner, 3G Capital Management LLC., Toronto, ON, Canada (June 7, 2024, Seminar on Value Investing and the Search for Value)

Mr. Begun, CFA has over seventeen years of experience in valuation-based investing.  Prior to co-founding 3G Capital in 2004 he worked as a research analyst for Fiduciary Asset Management and also for A.G.Edwards & Sons where he was responsible for equity research across multiple sectors.  From 2010 through 2017 Mr. Begun sat on the Board of Directors of AlarmForce Industries, a leading Canadian residential alarm monitoring company, whose shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange.  From 2012 through 2017 Mr. Begun was a Non-Executive Director at Grafenia PLC, a UK-based provider of software and systems for the graphic arts industry, whose shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange.  Mr. Begun graduated with Honors from the University of Chicago with an M.B.A. in Accounting and Finance and he also graduated valedictorian from Western Kentucky University with a B.S. in Finance.  He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a member of the Toronto Society of Financial Analysts.  Mr. Begun has been a guest speaker at a number of universities and also at various investing conferences giving lectures on the topic of investments since 2001.  He was named the recipient of CFA Magazine’s annual Most Driven honor in 2007.

For more on 3G Capital Management LLC, see www.3gcapital.com

ChouFounder and President, Chou Associates Management Inc., Toronto, ON, (April 19, 2024, Ivey Business School, Room 1230, 12noon to 1:30pm) 

Mr. Chou is the President of the Toronto-based Chou Associates Management Inc. Mr. Chou, a CFA, ended his formal education at Grade 12. While working as a technician for a phone company in 1981, he started an investment club that would later become Chou Associates Fund. Mr. Chou has operated five of the country’s most successful funds over the last 20 years (Chou Associates Fund, Chou Bond Fund, Chou RRSP Fund, Chou Asia Fund, and Chou Europe Fund). In 2004, the Canadian Investment Award named him the fund manager of the decade. His approach is to “find bargains and maintain discipline; if you cannot find bargains, stay in cash.” Currently (2024), Mr. Chou manages over $650 million in assets in his firm through five mutual funds and two insurance companies (Stonetrust and Loggerhead). The financial media have extensively covered Francis’ style, performance and character over the years. See media articles on Francis:

For more on Chou Associates Management Inc., see www.choufunds.com/associates.html

Past Guest Speakers

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