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Dear Investorside Member,
We are honored and excited to assume the leadership of the Investorside Research Association. Along with your active participation and our strong Board and committee leadership, we are confident we will continue to advance the Investorside mission of restoring trust in the U.S. capital markets by promoting investment research that is aligned with investor interests.
Although significant progress has been made, two-thirds of investor commissions are still directed to firms that conduct investment-banking activities and who are financially aligned with companies. As a result, banking revenues continue to dwarf investment research revenues, receiving a majority of the estimated $12b investor commission pool.
Investorside is poised to act in order to protect the interests of its members, whose financial interests rely solely on serving the investor. In this spirit, a very aggressive strategic vision for Investorside has been designed to enhance the viability of research providers who produce unbiased, non-conflicted research and who align their business model to serve investor interests. We’ve labeled this strategy “Leveling the Playing Field.”
Four Strategic Objectives for Leveling the Playing Field:
1. Increase Visibility – Increase visibility among rule-making bodies by seeking constructive and proactive engagement through our government affairs committee and by raising awareness of our presence among the media.
2. Increase Membership – Increase membership through current member referrals and introductions. While current membership stands at 74 members, an even larger membership provides a louder voice and more viable influential organization.
3. Establish a “Membership Community”– Expand our present annual events (Member’s Day and Independent’s Day) to include bi-monthly working lunch sessions in the NYC metropolitan area to establish an energetic “Membership Community” for sharing knowledge, as one of the top benefits of Investorside membership is the opportunity to network with your peers in the industry.
4. Build solid bridges to the Buyside – Improve the state of the investment research industry in order to provide truthful, unbiased investment research for well informed investment decisions by trustees, portfolio managers, analysts and investors.
Through the efforts of our Investorside Advisory Board, comprised of highly esteemed investment professionals, Investorside is uniquely positioned as an effective catalyst to unite these groups and mobilize the investor community in the common goal of improving investment research and restoring trust in our capital markets system.
Our “Level the Playing Field” strategy is an ambitious undertaking and will require enthusiastic member participation to execute successfully. Investorside is a member-driven organization – as such, your ideas, input and suggestions are greatly solicited and appreciated.
We look forward to seeing you at our first bi-monthly luncheon to be held on September 11th, at 11:45 AM and at our upcoming Member’s Day conference on October 21st. at the Cornell Club in NYC.
With best regards,
Richard Leggett
Chairman, Investorside
Pat Shea
Executive Director, Investorside
Changing Of The Guard At Investorside
Annual Board Meeting and
Bylaws Changes
The following is a copy of the press release issued by Investorside shortly
after the annual board meeting in June.
Investorside Elects New Chairman and Three New Directors
New York, NY, June 30, 2008--The Investorside Research
Association announced the election of Richard Leggett as Chairman and the
appointment of three new board members. Mr. Leggett, who is Head of the Governance Business unit
at RiskMetrics Group, has been a member of Investorside and served on the
board of directors for the past 4 years. He succeeds Stanton Green, President and CEO of OTR
Global.
Prior to joining RiskMetrics in August of 2007, Mr.
Leggett was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for
Financial Research and Analysis (CFRA), which was acquired by RiskMetrics.
Mr. Leggett was also a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs in New York and London
in both the technology equity research and investment banking divisions,
where he held leadership roles. "Investorside is very fortunate to
have a person like Rich who is taking over as Chairman, Mr. Green said. “He is a thoughtful, intelligent
person with a real understanding of the research industry and an
appreciation for the issues facing this industry. From his days at
Goldman through CFRA and now RiskMetrics, Rich has demonstrated an
intelligence and ethical standard which is core to Investorside
values."
Mr.
Leggett praised Mr. Green’s tenure as Chairman; “Stanton’s contributions to
Investorside have been invaluable; he spearheaded the largest membership
growth in recent years, implemented several innovative outreach programs
such as Members Day and organized the highly successful 2008 annual
Independents Day Conference, which reached a new milestone in
attendance. In addition,
Stanton oversaw the 2007 legislative initiative in Washington, D.C., created
educational programs to keep pace with the rapidly changing investment
landscape and supervised the transition of a new executive director.
Investorside is also pleased to
announce the appointment of three new board members, Penny Herscher,
President and CEO of FirstRain, Paul Henneman, President of ValueEngine,
Inc. and Anne Maffei, President of Vista Research, Inc. “Given the influx of new members
this year and the changing landscape of investment research from
traditional methods to recently adopted alternative methodologies, it makes
sense to diversify our leadership to match the dynamics of the market,”
said Mr. Green. “We are
fortunate to represent the leading independent research providers who
continue to innovate the way research is gathered and disseminated.”
2008
Independents' Day Conference (link to program agenda)
The Fourth Annual Independents’ Day Research Conference
held in New York City on Monday April 7, 2008 set records for registration
(392), attendance (321) and the number of research providers in
attendance. The success of
this year’s conference highlights the growing importance of Independent
Research in the investment landscape. Investorside is fortunate to represent the leading independent
research providers who continue to innovate the way research is gathered
and disseminated.
The conference included presentations from over 40
independent research providers, 28 breakout sessions, 12 case study sessions,
4 panel discussions and 3 guest speakers, including Dagen McDowell, anchor
for the Fox Business Channel. Panel discussion topics included expert networks, research
management, data mining and the regulatory environment. Speakers represented a variety of
investment management, independent research providers and professional
organizations including Reuters Insight, FactSet, Integrity Research
Associates, Hudson Street, Citisoft, Inc., BNY ConvergEX Group, LLC, OTR
Global and the SEC Division of Trading and Markets.
The purpose of Independents’ Day is to provide a forum
for research providers to showcase cutting edge research techniques and
present case studies demonstrating the effectiveness of their proprietary
research methodology. Several of the case studies presented are likely to
be nominated for awards later this year at the Annual Investorside Members
Day conference. Evidence of
the effectiveness of case studies was provided by two firms who uncovered
the pending subprime debacle well in advance of the problem being widely
known, in one case, as early as 2005.
Other highlights included demonstrations of the time
saving benefits of methodologies such as data mining and research
management services on the ever-increasing demands of investment
managers. “The exponential
growth in the amount of information available has necessitated the creation
of new management tools.”
Investorside is proud to welcome the addition of 14 new
members this year.
New Founding Members
·
First Rain - FirstRain applies state-of-the-art search, extraction and pattern
detection technology to the web to generate company models, business topics
and trends critical to the investment professionals.
Penny Herscher
President and Chief Executive Officer
www.firstrain.com
·
ValuEngine - ValuEngine.com (VE) is a stock valuation and forecasting service founded
by Ivy League finance academics.
Paul Henneman
President
www.valuEngine.com
New Members
·
Valu-Trac Research - Valu-Trac provides
Research Services which allow investors systematically to evaluate
investments on a global basis.
Charles Ekins
Investment Director
www.valu-trac.com
·
CecilRep -
CecilRep is the first technology company dedicated to automating middle
office reporting and intelligence for brokers, exchanges, and asset
managers of all sizes to their institutional counterparties.
George Kledaras
President and Chief
Executive Officer
www.cecilrep.com
·
Management CV - Management CV's provides a clear and unbiased source of information on
the CEOs and other senior executives of major public companies.
Renny Ponvert
President
and Chief Executive Officer
www.managementcv.com
·
Greenwich Consultants LLC (GC) - Greenwich Consultants is an independent sell-side research
consultancy founded in 2002 covering the Materials Sector/Chemical
Industry.
Michael Judd
President and Chief
Executive Officer
www.greenwich-consultants.com
·
Code Red, Inc. - provides research management software to the investment industry
including a solution which acts as a portfolio manager and analyst
workstation.
Jaime J. Bean
Director of US Sales
www.coderedinc.com
·
OpenSource Alpha - Open Source Alpha is an independent research project funded by
Instinet, a large agency broker dealer. OSA’s objective is to explore an
open architecture, conflict free, research management platform for the
institutional investment community.
Susan Walton
Chief
Executive Officer
www.opensourcealpha.com
·
Short Idea's – Through fundamental research, Short Ideas identifies stocks that
have the potential to make large percentage moves downward.
Christopher Laudani
President
www.shortideas.com
·
Ematrix Solutions - eMatrix Solutions Inc. is a new York headquartered global IT and
IT enabled Knowledge Process Outsourcing services organization.
Kaushik Basu
Managing Director
www.ematrix-inc.com
·
McLean Capital Research - McLean Capital is a bottom up fundamentally
driven research firm focusing on the Cash Flow Statement as it validates
the quality of earnings as measured by Generally Accepted Accounting
Principles (GAAP).
Richard McLean
President
www.mcleancapitalresearch.com
·
Knight - Knight
is a premier trade execution destination for on-line broker-dealers. Knight
has two business segments: Asset Management and Global Markets.
Tim Conway
Director, Commission Management
www.knight.com
·
Abraxas Corporation - Abraxas Global Analytics is an independent provider of global
primary research, customized to meet the client’s specific needs, with
emphasis on the process.
Karekin Jelalian
Managing Director
www.abraxascorp.com/solutions.asp
·
Knowledgebid - is an expert network and information marketplace platform which allows
researchers to anonymously and securely source, communicate, compensate,
and manage primary information sources and industry experts.
Rob Webb
Chief Executive Officer
www.knowledgebid.com
New Investorside Advisory
Board Members
Investorside is pleased to announce that John P. Scott
and Todd Petzel have accepted invitations to join the Investorside Advisory
Board. In addition, John Scott
will assume leadership role of the advisory board this year.
John P. Scott
John Scott, Managing Director, is responsible for equity
investment management and strategic planning at Commerce Asset Management,
an institutional investment advisory firm with $4 billion AUM. He is a
member of the firm’s Investment Policy Group and Stock Selection Committee.
Mr. Scott spent several years in London with Morgan
Stanley where he participated in the build out of the firm’s international capital
markets franchise. Subsequent
to returning to the United States, he was a partner at Geometry Group, a
strategic project advisory and merchant-banking firm with interests in
private equities, European wealth management and emerging markets trade finance.
He holds degrees from Georgetown University, University
of Maryland and University of London, King’s College.
Todd E. Petzel
Todd E. Petzel is Chief Investment Officer of Offit
Capital Advisors and a member of the firm's Investment Committee.
Prior to joining Offit Capital, Mr. Petzel was a
founding partner and Chief Investment Officer of Azimuth Asset Management,
a New York based fund of hedge funds.
Previously, he served as Chief Investment Officer of Commonfund, an asset
manager and fund of funds focused primarily on investing on behalf of
endowments and foundations. During his seven-year tenure at Commonfund Mr.
Petzel served as Chair of the internal investment group responsible for the
structure and strategy of assets under management equal to approximately
$30 billion at of the time of his departure, up from $16 billion at the
beginning of his term.
Prior to his work at Commonfund, Mr. Petzel served as
Chief Economist at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chief Economist at
the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange in New York.
Mr. Petzel began his career as an economics professor at
Macalester College and Stanford University, and later served as a lecturer
in finance at the University of Chicago from 1989-1996. He has written
extensively on finance and markets as editor-in-chief of Derivatives
Quarterly (1994-2001) and as author of Financial Futures and Options: A
Guide to Markets, Applications, and Strategies (1989).
Mr. Petzel holds a Ph.D., M.A. and B.A., with honors, in
Economics from the University of Chicago.
Important Upcoming Events
·
August
21, 2008 – Conference call – Recent Regulatory Developments
regarding Section 28 (e) arrangements.
·
September
11. 2008: Meeting of the Boards – Harvard Club, NYC. Meet members of
the Investorside Board of Directors and Advisory Board
·
October
21, 2008: Investorside Members Day 2008 – Cornell Club, NYC |
