2019 - 2020 Annual Letter
The 2018-2019 academic year was an important year for the Heilbrunn Center as the organization transitioned from a co-faculty director structure to a single faculty director with Tano Santos serving in the role. In this year of transition, Tano Santos and Meredith Trivedi met with key stakeholders including Board members, adjunct faculty members, current students, and alumni to understand their experience at Columbia Business School, in the Value Investing Program, and with the Center in general. From these meetings, the Center developed a strategic plan to re-format the structure of the Value Investing Program, create several new elective courses, and develop a regional alumni and recruiting presence in key cities across the country and world. The Center also launched a new podcast, Value Investing with Legends, which is hosted by Tano Santos and has had nearly 42,000 downloads to date. You can learn more about the initiative at www.valueinvestingwithlegends.com.
Beyond this activity of assessment and strategic development, the day-to-day operations of the Center continued as always. Offering 37 class sections, industry events and experiential learning opportunities, the Heilbrunn Center continued to fulfill its mission of promoting the study and practice of Graham & Dodd’s original investing principles. New classes offered in the 2018-2019 academic year included Seminar in Wealth Management taught by Andrew Gundlach ’01, Director, First Eagle Investment Management and Kristin Gilbertson, Chief Investment Officer, Access Industries; Practice of Wealth Management for High Net Worth Clients taught by Maria Brisbane, Managing Director, Merrill and Alex Zachary, Vice President, Merrill; and Managing for Value taught by Paul Johnson, Founding Partner, Nicusa Investment Advisors. The Center also re-launched the Mental Models course which was taught by Grant Bowman ’10 and Brian Waterhouse ’15, Founding Partners, Hunter Capital. Overall, the Center supported 41 faculty members in 2018-2019 academic year.
Click here to read the full Annual Letter and access past letters.
Are You Hiring?
With summer coming to an end, many companies are winding down their summer internship programs as students make their way back to campus for the upcoming school year. But did you know that many MBA students interested in investment management look for part-time internship opportunities during the school year to supplement their business school experience? If your firm is considering hiring a part-time intern during the academic year, please contact us for more information.
Interested in hiring for a full-time role? The Heilbrunn Center maintains a resume book for students in the Value Investing Program. Please contact us to review the resume book or learn more about posting your firm’s full-time opportunity.
Looking for other ways to get involved with our students? The Heilbrunn Center would appreciate your help in preparing students for upcoming interviews. If you are interested in serving as an interviewer for our mock interview program or participating in our upcoming investment management interview prep panel, please reach out to us.
First Eagle Investment Management Foundation Funds Value Investing Scholarship
Thank you to the First Eagle Investment Management Foundation for funding a five-year, merit-based financial aid award for a student in the value investing program. Increasing diversity in the investment management industry is a priority for the Heilbrunn Center and we appreciate First Eagle Investment Management Foundation’s support.
First Eagle Investment Management continues to be an excellent partner to the Heilbrunn Center and Columbia Business School. The firm, which has hired many Columbia Business School graduates over the years, established the Jean-Marie Eveillard Professorship of Value Investing in 2016. First Eagle Investment Management Director Andrew Gundlach ‘01, a member of the firm’s founding family, is a member of the Business School’s Board of Overseers, the Heilbrunn Center Advisory Board, and the Family Business Advisory Board.
Among its efforts to increase diversity, the Heilbrunn Center has launched a Women’s Initiative, led by alumnae Lauren Krueger '02, Alexandra Cowie '17, Mallory Downing ’15, Joanna Vu '17, and Jenny Wallace '94, which uses a 3-step approach to pursuing its mission: (1) build the pipeline at the undergraduate level; (2) support the current female MBA population; (3) help graduating students and those who have recently entered the investment industry to succeed. This initiative fits within the larger Women’s Initiative at Columbia Business School. Learn more about the Columbia Business School’s Women’s Circle here.
Thank you again to First Eagle for furthering this important initiative.
Summer Reading!
Do you follow Graham and Doddsville on Medium? Find a searchable version of the publication's archives starting from 2008 at medium/graham-and-doddsville. Graham and Doddsville is the Business School's student run investment newsletter that is co-sponsored with the Heilbrunn Center and published three times throughout the year.
Introducing the 2019-2020 5x5x5 Student Investment Fund Vintage
The end of the academic year marks the start of a new vintage for our 5x5x5 Student Investment Fund, which was created and funded in 2014 by Tom Russo, partner at Gardner Russo & Gardner. The idea behind the fund is simple and reflects Graham and Dodd’s long-term value investing principles: five investments with no more than five articulated reasons for each investment are held for five years. The students’ whose ideas are selected for the portfolio become voting members of the Board for the following two years and select which positions will go into the portfolio during that time. The 2017-2018 5x5x5 Investment Board selected the following ideas which were added to the portfolio this summer:
1. Align Technologies (ALGN)- submitted by Michael Wooten ’19
2.Becle, S.A.B. de C.V. (BMV: Cuervo)- submitted by Michael Allison ’19
3. Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG)- submitted by Jeffrey Johnson ’19
4. Mohawk Industries (MHK) – submitted by Neethling McGrath ’19
5. Rollins, Inc. (ROL)- submitted by Winter Li ’19
At the end of five years, the original amount, accounting for inflation, will be invested back into the 5x5x5 Fund and the remainder of any gains will be used to support current-use scholarships for students interested in investment management.
Listen to the season finale of our Value Investing with Legends Podcast to hear from Tom Russo and three of the newest 5x5x5 Investment Board members.
For more information and to take a look at the write ups for each idea in our portfolio, please visit our 5x5x5 Student Investment Fund page. Also, check back in with us next summer to see how the first vintage, invested in summer 2015, performed!
Tickets are now on sale for the 29th Anuual Graham & Dodd Breakfast!
The Heilbrunn Center is delighted to host Cliff Asness, Managing and Founding Principle of AQR Capital Management, for the 29th Annual Graham & Dodd Breakfast on October 11, 2019 from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the Pierre Hotel in New York City. Inaugurated in 1990, the Graham & Dodd Breakfast exemplifies eight decades of Graham and Dodd tradition at Columbia Business School. This event brings together alumni, students, scholars, and practitioners for a forum on current insights and approaches to investing and provides a great opportunity to connect with classmates and colleagues. To purchase a ticket to this event please register here.
Help Us Keep You Connected!
The Heilbrunn Center has a robust schedule of activities in New York City, and we are working to strengthen our network and expand our calendar of events to other regions around the world. Help us stay in touch by completing this secure form which will ensure we have your most up to date contact information, including your geographic location. By doing so, you will receive the latest Heilbrunn Center news, information about upcoming events, and ways to get involved. We look forward to staying in touch!
For those alumni and friends in Southern California, Heilbrunn Center faculty director, Tano Santos, and Heilbrunn Center managing director, Meredith Trivedi, will be in Los Angeles September 4-6! Stay tuned for more information on ways you can connect with them during their visit.
The Heilbrunn Center is excited to welcome the Value Investing Program Class of 2020 back to campus in September! As part of the Value Investing Program experience, each student is paired with at least one industry professional to provide guidance and advice on career development, feedback on pitches, and other assistance with networking and recruiting. This mentorship provides our students with the invaluable opportunity to engage one-on-one with an active member of the investing community and has led to many lifelong professional friendships. For those unable to commit the time to a formal mentee, we also offer mock interview preparation for the VI Program students and are building a directory of practitioners to conduct mock interviews and review pitches on a one-off basis.
If you are interested in participating with the mentorship or mock interview program please contact Caroline Reichert at cr2917@gsb.columbia.edu.
