Dr. George Athanassakos, Professor of Finance & Ben Graham Chair in Value Investing

Dr. George Athanassakos joined The Richard Ivey School of Business in July 2004 as the Ben Graham Chair in Value Investing and the Director of The Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing. Prior to joining Ivey, Dr. Athanassakos spent a number of years at various research-related positions with banking and trust companies in Canada and Greece, and taught at York University and Wilfrid Laurier University. Dr. Athanassakos has researched extensively the institutional attributes of the Canadian capital markets, the effect institutional trading and analysts’ forecasts have on stock market performance, stock and bond market anomalies and bond and equity valuation issues. He has offered seminars on valuation to Canadian and US valuator societies, and in Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Greece, France, Finland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Dr. Athanassakos is the winner of numerous first prize awards for best research papers, including three times winner (1991, 1994, 2003) of the Toronto Society of Financial Analysts’ Best Research Paper Award Competition. Dr. Athanassakos has a BA in Economics and Business Administration from The School of Industrial Studies of Thessalonica, Greece, and an MA in Economics, an MBA and a PhD in Finance from York University.

Intelligent Investing Conference:

The topic of Dr. Athanassakos’ session was Value vs. Growth Stock Returns and the Value Premium in Canada between 1985 and 2002.

Some key points he discussed were:

- Value vs. Growth by Time Period

- Value vs. Growth by Point in Business Cycle

- Value vs. Growth by Industry

- Value vs. Growth: Beta vs. Firm Size

- Value vs. Growth: Is It Risk or Errors in Expectations?

Watch Dr. Athanassakos' presentation
 

Dr. John Bart, Founder, Canadian ShareOwner

Dr. John Bart is founder of Canadian ShareOwner, an educational organization that teaches stock market investing to individual investors and investment clubs. He is also a Director of the World Federation of Investors and serves on the Investment Advisory Committee for the Royal Military College of Canada Club Foundation. Dr. Bart holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Royal Military College of Canada and an MBA and Ph.D. in Business Administration (Finance) from The University of Western Ontario. Between 1973 and 1997, John was a Professor of Finance at a number of Canadian universities where his research focussed on individual investors and their activities in the stock market. Currently, John is a Director of the World Federation of Investors and serves on the Investment Advisory Committee for the Royal Military College of Canada Club Foundation.

Intelligent Investing Conference:

The topic of Dr. Bart’s session was Growth Investing – What to Buy? When to Sell? It is Easiest with Growth Stocks.

Some key points he discussed were:

- Great Growth Companies

- Great Growth Companies with Great Stocks

- Great Growth Companies with Terrible Stocks

- Case studies

- Buying Great Stocks Prudently

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.

Intelligent Investing Conference:

The topic of Mr. Watsa’s keynote speech was Ben Graham and Bubbles.

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Howard Atkinson, CFA, CIMA, President, Horizons BetaPro ETFs

Howard Atkinson has over 19 years of investment management industry experience, including positions with a national investment dealer and major mutual fund companies. Most recently Howard was responsible for business development of the Exchange Traded Products business at Barclays Global Investors Canada Limited. He currently sits as President on the Toronto CFA Society board of directors and is a member of the S&P/TSX Canada Index Advisory Panel. Mr. Atkinson is the author of "The New Investment Frontier III: A Guide to Exchange Traded Funds for Canadians," and “Les Fonds Négociés en Bourse: Un outil de placement novateur pour l'investisseur avisé” and has been a contributing writer and frequent analyst reference in many major Canadian newspapers.

Intelligent Investing Conference:

The topic of Mr. Atkinson’s session was Capitalization Weighted Indexing – A Performance Headwind?

Some key points he discussed were:

- Different Index Weighting Methodologies

- Benchmarks and Indexes

- Active versus Passive Strategies

Watch Mr. Atkinson's presentation
 

Rob Arnott, Chairman, Research Affiliates, LLC

Rob Arnott has authored over one hundred articles for refereed journals such as the Financial Analysts Journal, the Journal of Portfolio Management and the Harvard Business Review. He has received five Graham and Dodd Scrolls or Awards, awarded annually by the CFA Institute for the best articles of the year, and declined a sixth award during his tenure as Editor. He has received two Bernstein-Fabozzi/Jacobs-Levy awards, awarded by the Journal of Portfolio Management and Institutional Investor. In 2002, he launched Research Affiliates to develop new products which he could bring to market through affiliations with highly respected distribution platforms throughout the world. He has served as Editor of the Financial Analysts Journal, as a Visiting Professor of Finance at UCLA, on the editorial board of the Journal of Portfolio Management and two other journals, and on the product advisory board of the Chicago Board Options Exchange and two other exchanges. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of California in 1977 with a degree in economics, applied mathematics and computer science.

Intelligent Investing Conference:

The topic of Mr. Arnott’s session was Fundamental Indexing – How Finance Theory Leads us Astray

Some key points he discussed were:

- CAPM, EMH, MM – all brilliant theories, but …

-- Not supported by empirical data.

- Gaps between theory and reality offer us …

-- Opportunities to improve our theories

-- Opportunities to profit

- Does Cap-Weighting have a performance drag?

Watch Mr.Arnott's presentation