Kerry Laurin

Heartland Advisors is an active, value-based investor that aims to provide superior risk-adjusted returns and limit downside participation. The firm looks for under-researched, under-followed and under-valued securities for well-managed companies with strong balance sheets. They typically sell securities when they consider them to be overvalued relative to other investments. Portfolio managers and research analysts work side-by-side to apply a bottom-up approach that combines traditional fundamental analysis.

MSA may use a variety of methods of analysis in formulating investment advice and managing assets for their clients, including fundamental, quantitative and cyclical analysis, as well as utilizing proprietary modeling tools along with advice or research provided to them. The firm may sell securities for a variety of reasons which include when the valuation targets are achieved; new information becomes available; better investment opportunities are identified; when clients add or reduce their assets under their management; there are changes in an underlying index.

The firm's portfolio managers, research specialists and traders are organized into teams by asset class. SCM provides several different investment approaches to both its international and domestic equity portfolios. For its capital appreciation equity management, the firm emphasizes current economic environment and secular themes. In particular, long-term economic trends, Federal Reserve policy and market liquidity serve as a macroeconomic backdrop to the overall direction of the markets. For equity stock selection, disciplined, fundamental research with emphasis on the following characteristics are practiced: strong fundamentals, accelerating earnings and sales, accelerating return on equity, expanding market share, low cost producers, quality management and positive earnings surprises. Its bottom-up security analysis emphasizes management, cash flow, earnings growth, balance sheet strength, competitive position, discounted cash flow and relative p/e ratio.

Allspring utilizes proprietary investment allocation systems in conjunction with the securities selection services provided by their portfolio managers to create and maintain actively managed investment portfolios intended to meet the requirements of its clients’ investment needs. The firm offers a variety of equity, multi-asset, and fixed income investment strategies. These investment strategies (collectively) may invest in a wide variety of financial instruments. Allspring employs bottom-up company specific analysis to find securities with under-appreciated prospects.

M&I Investment Management Corp. offers a variety stock, bond and money market fund options. They invest across the risk/reward spectrum and use a variety of asset allocation strategies. M&I manages risk by avoiding concentrations in a single stock or sector and emphasizes long-term results across all market cycles. In general, M&I tends to invest in the stocks of US companies in the electronic technology, finance, energy minerals, technology services and producer manufacturing sectors. The firm invests across all market-caps with emphasis on the stocks of large-cap companies. M&I maintains a low turnover rate. M&I uses a disciplined fixed-income investment approach that seeks to capture excess returns. The firm evaluates the risk-return characteristics of individual securities in a wide range of sectors and manages risk through diversification and ongoing credit analysis. Their investment process involves the evaluation of sectors offering the greatest opportunity given the economic climate and the selection of securities based on current and historical spread relationships. Duration is managed relative to market benchmarks and trends in interest rates. They seek to identify the optimal positioning along the yield curve and to manage portfolios based on their assessment of current and anticipated changes in interest rates.

Functions as a College/University

Functions as a College/University