Tag Archive for: Portfolio Manager

Sheetal Prasad, CFA: Managing Director, Jennison Associates

,

Sheetal Prasad“I think the constant in my life is that you’re moving to the next level. You’re moving to a new challenge,” says Sheetal Prasad, Small Cap Core and Mid Cap Growth Portfolio Manager at Jennison Associates, “And even though you might not think that you’re ready, you are.”

Prasad talks about the continuous learning curve, the value of culture, diversity of thought and being your whole self at work.

From Pre-Med to Portfolio Manager

Like a “good Indian girl”, Prasad began pre-med at Georgetown. When she realized being a doctor was not her calling, she switched to business. At first, she remained in the healthcare territory, working in a market research firm before moving to Wall Street.

A few years in, she leapt from the sell-side research to buy-side investment management, and then landed at Jennison, thirteen years ago. Soon she was challenged to diversify her expertise. 

“I got the opportunity to become a small-cap portfolio manager, but you have to know stocks across the entire universe – not just healthcare, but tech stocks and consumer stocks and industrial stocks,” says Prasad. “The truth is I didn’t have the background for that, but you’re given an opportunity, and you take it.” 

Today, most of her time is spent on mid-cap portfolio management.

“I had to learn to love to read. It’s so critical. My job is predicting the future to some degree. It’s finding those companies that are so well-positioned in certain industries that they can continue to grow from being a smaller market value to larger over time,” says Prasad. “The way you do that is by constantly reading or listening and continuing to learn. Learning is the best part of my job everyday.”

How I Built This, Invest Like The Best, The Knowledge Project and Masters of Scale are among podcasts that inform her professionally. 

Culture & Social Responsibility Matter More Now

“It’s pretty clear that we aren’t going back to the old normal, so what is that ‘new normal’?” asks Prasad. “How are we going to work – and play – differently? How will life change? Who are the companies that will enable that change and are going to be able to thrive?”

In addition to new companies and business models, Prasad is paying attention to company culture. The post-pandemic world has brought out the true value of culture.

“I have a much greater appreciation for culture today in my investment portfolios and the companies that I invest in,” she says. “Because I think that really is the difference between a company that can grow to be bigger, versus a company that might not make it.”

Investing responsibly is paramount to Prasad, such as considering environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.

“As our portfolio companies are becoming more social stewards, we also have to follow that,” states Prasad. “If I don’t feel good about investing in a company, I don’t have to do it.”

“I take my fiduciary and social responsibilities very seriously. It’s the way the investment business is going to be going forward, and we have to be good at it,” she says. “Part of who I am is having a social responsibility to my family, my community, but also to my job and my investors.“

Diversity of Thought And Voices

“In our business, diversity is not just on the outside, but it’s really about  diversity of thought,” notes Prasad. “If we all think the same way, we’re not going to do well in a stock market, where we need to be prepared for low probability events and be willing to react.”

Diversity of thought is essential to preventing blindspots, cognitive dissonance and ‘thesis creep’, since her team’s success requires staying open-minded to ‘what ifs’ and the healthy friction of debate. 

A candidate that questions a stock the firm holds, from a genuine and informed place, is an asset.

“Everybody is absolutely respectful, but you can’t be shy,” says Prasad. “We don’t hire wallflowers. We want people to express their opinions, because an exchange of ideas is critical to performance.”

Be Visible And Ask Questions

“The financial services industry is behind in their ability to attract and retain and promote women,” states Prasad, though Jennison does better. “And it’s both a top-down problem and a bottom-up problem.”

While face-time is essential to building culture and relationship, she feels the post-pandemic disruption has revealed it’s possible to work more virtually. This could help to attract women and diversity of thought. 

Prasad encourages women to sit visibly at the table, not the periphery, and express their opinions. If there’s one thing she wishes she’d known earlier, it is to not be afraid to ask “dumb questions”. Be communicative and ask questions, especially when you shift between roles or jobs. 

“I’m asking dumb questions all the time,” she says. “Chances are there’s somebody else sitting at the table that also doesn’t understand.”

She encourages women to take a page from men’s confidence book, and when opportunity presents, take the leap before you think you are ready – knowing you will figure it out, and it’s okay also to fail sometimes. 

“I’ve long come to realize that I have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable,” she states. “I’ve had imposter syndrome throughout my entire career. I’ve had to use that discomfort to get smarter, to get better, and to drive towards better performance. It doesn’t stop.”

Being Your Whole Self

Prasad begins her days with yoga before logging on, and recommends to take the time to do whatever helps clear your mind and support your well-being, as often as possible. She is finding working at home is also allowing her to feel more present at work. 

“I think very often in life you can’t be really good at your job if you feel as though you’re not giving 100% to your personal life, because that really is the core of who you are. My children, my family, are so important to me,” she says. ”The fact that I can be here for my family allows me to give just as much energy to my job.”

Prasad has learned the value of bringing her authentic self, including her emotions and extroversion, that complements some of her colleagues, to her work.

“In my early career, I was stoic. I felt like it’s all about the job,” she recalls. “Over time, I came to realize it’s okay to care. It’s okay to share. I am going to be emotional about this job and it’s okay. Because the best part of a job really is the people and the relationships you develop.”

“I love my team so much that I think it’s okay for me to show that I’m a woman, that I’ve got family obligations, that I laugh or I cry, or show what bothers me.” She exhales. “Chances are someone else might be going through something similar, and if you can share, they feel like they can. That’s where the team dynamic really comes through. Those small personal interactions go a long way.”

By Aimee Hansen

/by

Pamela Yoon, Vice President & Portfolio Manager, RBC Wealth Management/RBC Dominion Securities Inc.

Pamela YoonPamela Yoon finds her business incredibly rewarding, although also challenging.

“I encourage newer professionals that the first few years will always be tough so you have to adjust for playing the long game,” she says. “It’s like training for a marathon and while it can be hard to stick with, it pays off.”

Building a Successful Business From Scratch

That long game has worked for Yoon. She joined the banking world right out of university without knowing much about it. In her 23-year-old mind, she saw starting as a teller as the traditional route to success. But a friend recommended that she try something different; he had an opening for a junior assistant position and even though she didn’t know exactly what it was, she knew she would catch on quickly. Yoon didn’t grow up in a household where they discussed financial markets, but she found the field fascinating and never looked back.

Yoon studied how the most successful people in the office made their way and realized that at the time, all the assistants were women, and all the brokers were white males. However, she loved the client interaction and asked the office manager if she could be considered as an investment executive. He rebuffed her, and her friend recommended that she join him at BMO Nesbitt Burns, which at the time had the best rookie training on the street. “I was persistent and aggressive to get hired even though there were no job openings,” she says.

After starting from scratch in 1996, today Yoon has built a $200 million business. It wasn’t easy, she says. Born in Malaysia, she came to Canada for university and is proud she could build a successful business despite no family connections or friends with money, which is a challenge in a business built on relationships. Her solid client foundation has helped her realize success as the field has pivoted from one that used to be primarily transaction-based to a fee-based holistic wealth management approach that covers full financial planning.

Now she is able to concentrate on growing her business from current clients and referrals. “I wish I had done something else first to build a network, as my start was a little slower than many, but with my current experience, I can now grow much faster.”

Helping Women Assert Their Role in the Business

Despite that early experience, the challenges and obstacles she sees are largely in women’s minds, Yoon says. “They might tell you that a certain role is not for you, as happened to me early on, but you have to push back.” She especially finds that in a business like hers where you are judged by performance, you don’t have to deal with glass ceilings or bosses denying raises because everyone is on par. “If I produce more than a man, I have that option.”

It’s one of the reasons she finds it puzzling that there aren’t more women in the business. In addition, she feels that women’s skillsets are well suited to success. “They have more of the emotional intelligence that is important in this business to help people plan, and they ask good questions to help families make hard decisions around their money, Yoon says.

Giving Back to Aspiring Students

Yoon is still very active at her university, where she graduated with a degree in economics. For the past six years has hosted a forum in her board room (which will be virtual this year) where students are invited to tour the firm and ask questions. There, too, she sees the disparity as it is almost always a ratio of 20% female and 80% male.

She also serves as a guest lecturer in behavioral finance and last year announced the inaugural “Pamela Yoon Award for Economics,” which is open to anyone pursuing a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) or CMT (Chartered Market Technician). “I truly feel that I want to give back and create a legacy.”

Despite her many professional obligations, Yoon stays busy and balanced. A weightlifter and road cyclist, she is also a self-taught chef and enjoys spending time with her two teenage sons.

She finds her work very rewarding. “I want to empower more women to take control of their finances,” she says, adding that Vancouver, Canada, where she lives, is a region that’s very real estate focused, so she is trying to educate people about the possibilities in the stock market. “I see many get lost, and so it’s important to explain the market in plain language and give them confidence to approach their financial life with full confidence.”

by Cathie Ericson

/by

Voice of Experience: Jitania Kandhari, Head of Global Macroeconomic Research and Portfolio Manager, Morgan Stanley

jitania kandhariBy Cathie Ericson

In the male-dominated world of finance, Morgan Stanley’s Jitania Kandhari finds that women’s voices can often get muffled in their constant quest for perfection. “Women tend to speak up less as they search for the ideal solution or just the right words, but it’s something they can and should overcome,” she says. “It’s important to have faith in yourself — just join the conversation and own what you say.” An encouraging environment with the right leadership and colleagues can be a big factor in the success of women, and in her case, she says that she is very fortunate to be part of a wonderful team at Morgan Stanley that has a strong culture of open expression.

Carving Out a Valuable Role

Jitania hit the ground running, beginning her career as a trainee at the peak of the Asian crisis at Morgan Stanley in India. With jobs in short supply, she moved to another firm that covered Indian equities and subsequently became a private wealth manager for ultra-high net worth individuals, where the seed of her interest in global economics — the linkages between global macro and asset classes — was sown. She worked at another firm in the United States, consulting on Latin American markets, and then came back to Morgan Stanley where the person with whom she’d done her first-year rotation was head of a team.

She joined them as the sole analyst in an emerging market fund and has since carved out a role and built a team doing what she is most passionate about — heading global macro-economic research and recently co-managing the Breakout Nations fund, which is a highly active country allocation fund that invests in both emerging and frontier markets

“Being named as head of macro-economic research for the team was a huge lift in my career and has produced a steep learning curve, which I love,” she says. “I have learned more than I have ever learned in any role in my career.” For her, one of the most important lessons has been the value of good leadership which goes hand-in-hand with building a high-quality team, along with the more strategic functions of her position.

While active management versus passive management is currently getting a lot of attention, Jitania is confident that active management will reassert its importance. “In my group, we pay a lot of attention to country allocation, as well as stock allocation,” she says, adding that their philosophy is that in the developing world, getting the country call right matters as much as the stocks. “We first identify the best countries and then the portfolio managers buy stocks to reflect that country view,” she explains.

While she has a mentor, Jitania wishes she had had the benefit of one from the start of her career, having seen the valuable role it has played in shaping her career and helping her identify strengths and weaknesses. She also advises women to keep an eye out for a sponsor, noting that women are adept at working horizontally but shouldn’t overlook the need for someone higher up to be guiding and watching out for them.

Advice That Resonates

Jitania has three pieces of advice that ring true at any career stage.

The first is to be a voracious reader, which she says will help you connect the dots in your investment career and better understand the world as one macro environment.

Second, she advises others further along in their career to keep reinventing themselves, as the only constant is change.

And finally she says, “I tell my kids to work harder than anyone else around you, and the rest will follow.”

Through internal workshops and networking, she continues seeking advice on her own career, including a recent series on communication training, which has further bolstered her interactions with clients and peers, as well as her own team.

Threading Her Global Interests To All Areas of her Life

Complementing her work with global and emerging markets at Morgan Stanley, Jitania extends that focus throughout the other facets of her life. In her spare time, she enjoys Indian classical singing and dancing, activities she has pursued since she was a child.

Her husband is on the board of the Afya Foundation, a medical supply recovery organization that collects supplies that would otherwise be wasted in the U.S., and ships them to less-developed countries that are experiencing calamities. She would like to take her children, ages 7 and 5, to their warehouse to participate, as a way to bridge her work and philanthropic interests. “I want to make a difference and extend my knowledge and reach to these countries and help a bigger cause,” she says.

And the thread continues in her travel with her family, whom she takes to one emerging market each year. They started with India and will visit Egypt next. She is gratified that her kids have inherited her interest in thinking globally. Recently her daughter’s class completed a New York neighborhood study, and Jitania was delighted that her daughter selected Greenpoint specifically because it was a Polish neighborhood, where her daughter knew she invested and visited.

“My goal is to give them those experiences that I live and breathe,” she says.

/by

Voice of Experience: Nili Gilbert, Co-Founder & Portfolio Manager at Matarin Capital Management

Nili GilbertBy Cathie Ericson

“My best advice is that women should appreciate the benefit of taking measured risks, those you can understand and manage,” says Nili Gilbert, co-founder and portfolio manager at Matarin Capital Management, citing starting the firm as one of those measured risks.

“You have to believe in yourself to ensure that you don’t shrink in the face of challenges,” she says, adding that the goal isn’t to look for the course without them, but instead to rally and meet them.

Innovating in the Financial Industry

Gilbert’s interest in financial markets dates back to when she was a young girl in Switzerland and was curious about the different currency markets she encountered while traveling. She designed her own related field of study while attending Harvard, earned her MBA from Columbia Business School by age 24 and joined Invesco.

There she met the team with whom she’s been working ever since. They founded Matarin Capital Management in 2010, taking pride in the fact that at that time they’d been together for almost a decade, managing more than $25 billion as a team at Invesco.

“Our team has always operated under the investment philosophy that human emotions drive markets, and so our strategy to make money is to trade on the dislocations that these emotions create and to deliver our clients a more stable return,” she says.

Cofounding and helping build Matarin is the professional achivevement she’s most proud of and one that reflects her initial career inclinations. Gilbert wrote in her business school application that she dreamed of one day founding a financial services company. “I said that I hoped to create a company that would help shape values in the industry and so starting Matarin was a seminal moment,” she says.

The firm was established based on values and a longer-term view. “We realized there are thousands of asset managers out there, and the world doesn’t need just another hedge fund. That’s why we set out to build something that is different and that has purpose, something that would be an enduring business.”

The firm is continuously engaged in a variety of research projects to support its investment strategies. Some of the research that Gilbert is most engaged with at this time includes a review of valuation as a market timing tool. She notes that it’s tricky to use valuation to determine the future direction of the S&P, for example, because the market index can stay overvalued for a long time before it corrects.

A second project the firm is undergoing is a consideration of how the advent of negative interest rates may change basic assumptions about how macroeconomics work, as they look at a combination of theoretical viewpoints and historical observations.

Winning as A Team

Gilbert says that one thing she’s learned over time is that success doesn’t come from individual contributions, but rather from a strong team as a whole. She says their team sets goals as a group and achieves as a group which is why the people you team up with are so critical to your career.

Since all five of the principals at Matarin have previously been senior professionals at large, well-respected firms, they know that there can be a better way to work, away from the typical silos. In that setting, portfolio managers only have control over their returns but that’s not the sole factor affecting client well-being. She appreciates that the firm’s approach gives them the ability to control what strategies are appropriate, what fees should be, how to manage communications and when to close funds that have reached capacity.

“There are some very technical questions in the industry that for us start at the core with conversations about values,” she says, adding that while some cultures are focused on asset accrual, Matarin chooses to set goals in terms of dollars of added value generated for clients over time.

Making the Industry Positive for Women

The industry will benefit when women see more women like themselves in it, which will show them the path to success, she believes. That’s why Matarin tries to stay visible with its principals acting as mentors and speaking at conferences, including involvement in “100 Women in Hedge Funds.”

Since the portfolio management space is such a performance-oriented business, it can be quite meritocratic, which makes it an excellent career for women. “Investment performance can be a great equalizer. Women who deliver strong returns can have long and fruitful careers in the industry,” she says. “Because of the emphasis on performance, women should be attracted to the industry as a place they can excel.”

She says that diversity as a whole is important for any business, and her firm supports diversity in skill sets, gender, culture and backgrounds. She emphasizes that they hire based on merit but never before they’ve considered a diverse pool of potential candidates.

“If you have a good mix of viewpoints around the table, you can embark on a professional debate that puts your ideas in the best form so you can test and vet them from different perspectives.”

Work and Home Combine for a Positive Life View

Gilbert serves as a member of the board of directors and chairs the finance and investment board for the Synergos Institute, an international development organization focused on poverty alleviation. She says the group identifies breakdowns in the system which cause or perpetuate poverty, and helps to implement leadership initiatives and structural changes to repair them.

An avid traveler, she and her husband just returned from their honeymoon in French Polynesia.

Gilbert says her ability to work hard comes because of one belief. “When you do something you love, it helps you build resilience to make it through the hard days, and it makes the good days better, too.”

/by