Since our last update, we have had a very lively and varied member education schedule, including topics such as identifying skilful managers, transparency in hedge funds, the out-performance of venture backed IPOs, credit risk, capital constraints, and currency overlays. We have continued to benefit from speakers provided by the CFA Global Speaker Retainer Program – Charley Ellis, spoke to us about "Investment Policy: How to Win the Loser's Game”; and Manu Bhaskaran spoke to us about the Indian economy. Brindha Gunasingham, also on the Program, spoke to us about venture backed IPOs. We also benefited from presentations by Rob Prugue, who spoke about evolutionary shifts within superannuation funds, and Tim Haston, who presented on hedge fund transparency - both speakers have now been invited to join the Program.
We have widened our offering of events to appeal to different segments of our membership. As well as our normal lunchtime events, we have started introducing some evening and late afternoon events. We have started inviting thought leaders and industry greats, like past and present editors of the Financial Analysts Journal (Richard Ennis and Rob Arnott) to share their thoughts with us and we have introduced events on very detailed or niche subject areas. We are continuing to develop our soft skills workshops and will continue with the existing analyst workshop program.
We have been fortunate to receive assistance, through the provision of venues and catering from industry sponsors including Lazard Asset Management, AMP Capital Investors, CommSec, BNP Paribas, Colonial First State Global Asset Management and Russell Investment Group.
We look forward to hosting an exciting events program for the rest of the year. At the time of writing, forthcoming events include:
7 March 2007
“What is fundamental indexing and why
is it so controversial?”
To be presented by Rob Arnott, Chairman of Research Affiliates.
April 2007 [date tbc]
"An Asian Economic Outlook"
To be presented by Manu Bhaskaran, Partner/Head, Economic Research, Centennial Group and presenter from the CFA Institute Speaker Retainer Program.
May 2007 [date tbc]
“Presenting Confidently in a Global World”
A soft skills workshop to be facilitated by Mariette
Rups-Donnelly of Powerhouse Presentation and
Trisha Carter of Trans Cultural Careers.
Recently two new members, Michael Singh and Julian Morrison, joined our committee. They will assist with plans to host an analyst workshop on Infrastructure and a webcast event over the next few months, and with our continuing efforts to provide a dynamic and value-added member education program.
