Fall 2008InsIde:

2008 ConFerenCe . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2007-2008 MeMbershIp report . . . . . . . . . 3

prograMs 2007-2008 . . . . . . 4

the CFa VanCouVer 30th annual ForeCast dInner . . . 5

Charter awards CereMony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

CandIdate report . . . . . . . . . . 7

publIC awareness . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Volunteer appreCIatIon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

unIVersIty relatIons . . . . . 10

2008/09 board oF dIreCtors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

presIdent’s welCoMe . . . . . 11

Published by CFA Vancouverwww.cfavancouver.com

opinions expressed in the CFa Vancouver newsletter do not necessarily represent those of the authors’ firms of employment or of CFa Vancouver and do not constitute a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instruments . Information herein is obtained from various sources and is not guaranteed for accuracy or complete-ness . the authors’ firms and CFa Vancouver therefore disclaim any liability arising from the use of information in this publication .

outgoing president’s MessageCatherine heath, CFa

It has been an honour to serVe as president of CFa Vancouver . this has been an exciting year for CFa Vancouver . In May, CFa Vancouver proudly hosted the 61st annual CFa Conference that brought over 1,800 investment professionals from all over the world to our vibrant city . In addition to the benefits of being able to attend a conference of this scale and quality locally, CFa Vancouver members will also benefit from the revenue received from the event (over $50,000 .00 usd) . attendance of CFa Vancouver charter holders was strong . overall attendance at the conference surpassed the CFa Conference hosted by new york City last year .

Financially, CFa Vancouver continues to be in a strong position . a surplus of $14,585 was recognized for the 2007/2008 fiscal year, primarily attributable to continued growth in revenues realized from employment postings . a portion of this surplus is set aside by CFa Vancouver as a short term reserve to cover unplanned short term increases in expenditures or declines in revenues with the remaining portion set aside as a long term reserve to support the achievement of the long term strategic plan .

on the operational side of CFa Vancouver, one main initiative the board focused on this year was the creation of our long-term strategic plan . guided by our recent member survey results, the board outlined our goals and priorities at our strategy sessions facilitated by Chip deale, head of society services at CFa Institute . the conclusion of these sessions led to the identification of the board’s three main multi-year goals:

1) enhance awareness of the CFa charter as the preeminent credential for investment professionals .

2) enhance the value proposition that CFa Vancouver offers to members and candidates .

3) strengthen CFa Vancouver’s ability to effectively source, engage, and utilize volunteers and staff .

the strategic plan will guide decision making within CFa Vancouver over the next three years . we are excited to go forward with a more defined vision of our organization .

on a last note, sheila hughson has announced she will retire at the end of the year, after nine years as CFa Vancouver’s administrator . we are very sad to see her go . sheila’s renowned memory, her attention to detail, sense of humour, and her exper-tise on all things related to the administration of our rapidly growing society will be hard to match . she has truly been a great source of strength in all these areas, as well as in her role with CFa Victoria . we wish her well in her retirement at the end of this year, and feel lucky to have benefited from her hard work over the last nine years .

thank you and best wishes sheila!

a year in review

CFa VanCouVer was proud to host CFa Institute’s annual Conference this year . attendance at the May conference was well above 1800, easily surpassing the previous year’s record of 1600 in new york, and significantly above the 1200 attendees in Zurich in 2006 . Vancouver last played host in 1995, when almost 700 attended .

the conference took place at the Van-couver trade and exhibition Centre and the pan pacific hotel over four days, and offered an excellent mix of internation-ally recognized plenary session speakers and expert breakout session speakers, as well as ample time to network, socialize and sightsee .

attendees came from around the world to hear plenary speakers such as 1999 nobel prize recipient robert Mundell; nassim nicholas taleb (author of “the black swan” and “Fooled by random-ness”); steven levitt (author of “Freako-nomics”); Jeffery sachs (director of the earth Institute at Columbia university); Janet yellen (president of the Federal reserve bank of san Francisco); and burton Malkiel (author of “a random walk down wall street”) .

Close to 150 attendees were from our three bC societies, and most took advan-tage of CFa Vancouver’s $100 conference registration discount . as a result of the record attendance and many volunteers’ hard work in securing a record number of sponsors and exhibitors, CFa Vancouver received a cheque from CFa Institute for us$57,750 which our board of direc-tors has chosen to add to the Mike ryan speaker series endowment .

special thanks go to rob Mitchell, who as president in 2003 secured the confer-ence for us; to Mark Fattedad, Janine guenther, donna Jones, adam pion, alex prodanovic, Catherine heath, nancy bertrand (toronto), Craig senyk (Calgary) and beth hamilto-Keen (Calgary) for helping with sponsorship; and to Julian Carson, daniel wong, Miika Makela, derek yee, levente Mady, trevor radford, troy peart, Jessie bobinski, david barr, and darren degraff for their help at the conference . our retiring (but not shy) office administrator, sheila hughson was invaluable throughout .

2008 ConferenceIan robertson, CFa

FROM TOP: Sheila Hughson, Administrator CFA Vancouver with Jenine Kaznowski, Corporate Sales Manager, CFA Institute; Pan Pacific; Ian Robertson, CFA, Chairman of the 2008 Committee

2NewsletterFall 2008

the following is a further breakdown of our membership by industry and title .

Industry Classifications Percent

broker dealer, Investment banking 22%

Commercial/retail banking, bank trust departments 12%

Consulting Firm 9%

Corporate/public sponsor & Foundation/endowment 2%

Insurance Company 1%

Investment Company/Mutual Fund 17%

Investment Management Counseling 17%

other businesses including government, academic, and miscellaneous 20%

Titles & Occupations

analyst, equity & Fixed Income 6%

analyst, other 8%

Ceo, Chairman, partner, principal 7%

Chief Investment officer 5%

Investment banker 8%

Investment Counselor 8%

Investment Firm Manager 5%

portfolio Manager 12%

sales/Marketing 6%

securities trader 8%

other 26%

We look forward to another successful year in 2008-2009!

CFa VanCouVer Currently has 1,044 members, which represents a modest 2 .4% growth from last year . Consistent with previous years, 88% of our members are CFa Charterholders, 90% are regular (voting) members, 7% affiliate members, and 3% regular retired members . ninety-six percent of the members are from Canada, of which 95% reside right here in bC .

Society Membership Summary

gender:

Male: 833 80%

Female: 211 20%

Age Distribution:

21-31: 140 13%

32-42: 536 51%

43-53: 219 21%

54-64: 74 7%

>64: 9 1%

no age data: 66 6%

2007-2008 Membership reportdaniel wong, CFa

3NewsletterFall 2008

programs 2007-2008 Jeffrey porter, CFa and Miika Makela, Member programs Co-Chairs

CFA Institute Speakers

• UnderstandingtheRisksinEmergingMarkets–William Gamble, Principal, Emerging

Market Strategies

• XBRL:AddingInteractiveDatatoYourDigitalToolkit–Glenn Doggett, CFA, CFA Institute Centre

for Financial Market Integrity

• HighYieldBondsGoDownCycle–Martin Fridson, CFA, FridsonVision LLC

• ThePsychologyofInvesting–Gayle Buff, CFA, Buff Capital Management

Regular Programs

• CanadianEquityMarket/SectorOutlook–Warren Jestin, Chief Economist, Scotiabank

• Today’sAngelInvestingLandscape–Todd Dean, President, Keiretsu Forum

• TheCanadianABCPMarket:AnatomyofaMeltdown–Colin Kilgour, President, Connor,

Clark & Lunn Wholesale Finance

• InnovativeFactorsinEquityModeling:TechniquestoLeverageSpecialtyDatatoOutperform

–Carson Boneck, CFA, Senior Quantitative Analyst, Quantitative Services Group LLC

• Infrastructure:ASustainableGlobalTheme–Frank Holmes, CEO, CIO, US Global Investors Inc.

• CanadianEconomicUpdate–David E. Wolf, VP, Head of Canadian Economics,

Merrill Lynch Canada

• IFRS:ComingtoaFinancialStatementNearYou–Mark Walsh,CA Principal, Accounting

Standards Canada

Corporate Sponsored Programs

• OptimizingMineProduction:AnOverviewofToday’sUndergroundExtractionMethods

–Mike Sieb, President, Brillliant Mining Corp.

Wealth Planning Series

• WealthPlanningSeminar–Keith Sjogren, Director Strategy Consulting, Investor Economics;

John Blackmer, President & CEO, Solus Trust Company; Brenda McEachern, Estate & Tax Planning

Consultant, Canada Life; Ernst Lang & Vince Cardella, Partners, Meritus Financial Inc.

• CanadianTaxStrategies–Tim Cestnick, Managing Director, WaterStreet Family Wealth Counsel

• AttractingHighNetWorthClientsWorkshop-Dan Richards, Principal, Strategic Imperatives

Social Events

• BuildingtheCanuckFanCommunity–Chris Zimmerman, CEO, Vancouver Canucks,

TMAC - CFA Vancouver luncheon

• NetworkingeventwithCharteredAccountants

• WhiskyTastingSocial–Dave Mason, Legg Mason Canada/West Coast Whiskey Society

It has been an honour to serve the membership of CFa Vancouver as pro-grams Co-Chairs this past year . through-out the year we endeavoured to deliver timely content with sufficient breadth and depth to provide useful information and continuing education to our mem-bership . the programs committee made every effort to attract leading industry experts to speak on a variety of subjects at our presentations, and will continue to do so in the future . we also tried to deliver content at a number of different price points in order to make our events as broadly available and affordable to members and guests as possible .

during the past year we made a con-certed effort to obtain feedback about our events from attendees . based on a number of metrics, the feedback we received from those evaluations has been positive . while it is always a challenge to deliver timely and relevant content to such a diverse membership your comments about the events, and the topics or speakers you would like to see in the future, has been very informative and will continue to guide the programs committee in planning future events .

Finally, CFa Vancouver is an organization run by volunteers and we would like to extend gratitude to our volunteer com-mittee members, without whom much of what we delivered through the year would not have been possible: thanks to troy peart, alex holmes, Janice leung, wendy Choi, and Chad spence for their support .

4NewsletterFall 2008

Volunteer Opportunities

Contact Troy Peart attroypeart@shaw.ca

Employment Opportunities

To view current opportunities please visit our website:

http://www.cfavancouver.com/employment/default.aspx

Coming Events

Please visit our websitewww.cfavancouver.com

CFa VanCouVer’s 30th annual Fore-cast dinner was held on January 17, 2008 at the Four seasons hotel . the sold out dinner brought out an astounding 400 guests mainly from the lower mainland of Vancouver . paul balfour, Vice president of phillips, hager & north Investment Management ltd ., acted as the emcee of the evening event, which boasted a new format including congratulatory remarks to the recent CFa Charter recipients and appreciation remarks directed to the volunteers of CFa Vancouver by Cath-erine heath, president of CFa Vancouver, a panel discussion, trivia games, and presentations to representatives from okanagan College and university of Victoria, the winners of the 2007 bC portfolio Management Competition, and to ray wong, the winner of the 2007 Forecast contest .

we welcomed to the panel robert (bob) gorman, CFa, Vice president, td private Client group, Kim shannon, CFa, Mba, president and Chief Investment officer, sionna Investment Managers, and leon

tuey, renowned local technical analyst . while the guests enjoyed wine courtesy of laughing stock Vineyards, the panel discussed various topics including the outlook for oil, gold and various indices . the evening could not have been made possible without the support of our sponsors, which included business in Vancouver, standard & poor’s, thomson, FInCad and of course, laughing stock Vineyards .

we are looking forward to the 2009 31st annual Forecast dinner, which will be held in early 2009 . please watch for further information as this event is sure to be sold out once again . If you or your orga-nization may be interested in sponsoring this upcoming event, please contact Jessie bobinski at jessie .bobinski@cma .ca or 604 .736 .7728 .

As I wind down to retirement at the end of this year, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the members of CFA Vancouver, CFA Victoria and the CFA Institute for making my time with you very enjoyable. It has been a pleasure and an honour serving you, meeting many of you and learning more about the CFA Institute, their programs and this highly sought after designation. I spent most of my career in the investment industry and it has been a rewarding experience to end it in a position associated with the industry. Special thanks to Kathy Leavens and the board members of 2000-01 who gave me this opportunity. I wish all of you continued success in this truly fine organization.

Sincerely,Sheila Hughson

the CFa Vancouver 30th annual Forecast dinner a Fabulous evening of Fun, Food and Forecasts

thank you

5NewsletterFall 2008

Charter awards Ceremony december 6th 2007

the Charter awards CereMony was held on december 6th 2007at the Metropolitan hotel with a late afternoon reception attended by 17 grads and their guests . we thank guest speakers edi-May smithies, CFa Vancouver mem-ber and past-president who spoke on “what it means to have attained the CFa Charterholder status” and to Chip deale, head society relations CFa Institute who spoke to members and guests about the CFa designation and presented the certificates .

FROM TOP: Jessie Bobinski, CFA receiving her charter from Chip Deale of CFA

Institute; Guest Speaker: Edi-May Smithies, CFA and Past President. RIGHT: Awards Recipients.

brian K . alexander, CFa

Frederic bastien, CFa

Jeremy billan, CFa

Christopher J . birchall, CFa

Jessie ann bobinski, CFa

shawn d . Campbell, CFa

Ken Ming Chow, CFa

angelina lei boo Chung, CFa

sulman b . damji, CFa

Jag dhillon, CFa

sudhir dhingra, CFa

lingyan du, CFa

derek M . edstrom, CFa

Mingjing Fu, CFa

simran s . gill, CFa

Constantine K . hatzipanayis, CFa

george n . hungerford, CFa

Jacqueline shek yan Ip, CFa

aneez Jamal, CFa

derek r . James, CFa

dejan Kukic, CFa

andrea n . lee, CFa

david Zheng bang li, CFa

alfred hau Kit li, CFa

yiyi lu, CFa

howard Ma, CFa

Jaime lynn Macdonald, CFa

Karny Mahil, CFa

william James Mcleod, CFa

Christopher william Moffat, CFa

tommy C .w . ng, CFa

andy nguyen, CFa

tyler w . ow, CFa

sean Michael oye, CFa

Craig b . pamplin, CFa

adrian J . pelosi, CFa

Kevin pollard, CFa

rochelle presgrave, CFa

trevor h . radford, CFa

Katherine ramsay, CFa

Juan C . rendon, CFa

warren andrew rennison, CFa

Michael edward richmond, CFa

harpreet sahota, CFa

Isaac J . schweigert, CFa

Jingmei shen, CFa

Keith andrew smart, CFa

Jason p . smolensky, CFa

norman C . so, CFa

tracy steele, CFa

petr straka, CFa

Feifei Jasmine wang, CFa

Joelle d . wendt, CFa

benjamin Jacob west, CFa

windy wijaya, CFa

timothy James wilkinson, CFa

letitia wong, CFa

Congratulations 2007 grads

6NewsletterFall 2008

2007/2008 was a reCord year for enrollment in the CFa program . this past year 1,520 candidates were registered through CFa Vancouver, represent-ing our largest candidate base ever, an increase of 395 candidates or 35% over the previous fiscal year . of these 1,520 candidates, 516 were registered for the december level 1 exam (versus 327 in december 2006) and a further 1,004 can-didates were enrolled for the June 2008 exam offering (versus 798 in June 2007) .

to support these candidates we started the year with an information session, providing the opportunity for candi-dates to meet and learn from current CFa charter holders, we facilitated mock exams to test candidate’s exam prepara-tion and also provided scholarships to financially support those who needed the assistance .

at the information session in december candidates and prospective candidates were introduced to a variety of CFa Vancouver members . approximately 150 candidates joined tables of 10 to 12 people and had the opportunity to interact in these small groups with a CFa Vancouver member . In 15 minute

intervals the CFa Vancouver member would share their background and expe-riences, allowing time for multiple ques-tions from the candidates before moving to the next table . Candidates learned different study tips and skills as well as benefiting from the exposure to a broad range of experiences and opportunities that only the CFa charter could provide . an informal networking session was held at the end for candidates to follow up with specific questions and to form their study groups for the upcoming exams . In addition, representatives from stalla were on hand to answer candidate questions and raffled off complementary tuitions to 3 lucky candidates .

CFa Vancouver awarded 7 CFa program scholarships to Candidates in 2007/2008, split between the december and June exam programs and diversified through-out all three levels of exams . we received approximately 60 applications, up from 48 in the prior year and continue to look at opportunities to increase the number of candidates applying . these scholar-ships are a great opportunity for Candi-dates as they reimburse them with full tuition and CFa Vancouver pays the $220 us exam fee .

Mock exams were held on november 2 and May 5 in advance of the december and June exam offerings, respectively . approximately 100 level 1 candidates took advantage of the november mock exam and approximately 200 participat-ed in the May mock exam . these exams are prepared by the boston society and are meant to help Candidates benchmark their level of preparedness by writing an exam under normal exam conditions . at the conclusion, an answer key was dis-tributed so candidates could self grade their exams .

as always, we rely on the contribution of the many volunteers that have helped out during the year . none of our events would have been able to proceed with-out them and we would like to take this opportunity to thank them . we would especially like to thank sheila hughson who does an incredible job organizing and managing the events .

Candidate reportJulian Carson, CFa

Candidate ReceptionDecember 3, 2008

(date to be confirmed)** Watch for Details **

Charter Awards CeremonyDecember 4, 2008Metropolitan Hotel

** Watch for Details **

7NewsletterFall 2008

we ContInue to strIVe to increase the awareness of the CFa charter and brand to professionals and high net worth individuals in Vancouver, just as other societies are doing throughout Canada . we are accomplishing this through media contacts, networking events for professionals, and employer education/outreach . we have determined that one way to increase awareness is to reach reporters directly in local media, as well as nation-wide media outlets . as CFa Institute develops media programs for Canadian as well as International locations, we focus on the local media exclusively . this year, we developed a promotional relationship with business In Vancouver (bIV), the weekly Vancouver business newspaper . this arrangement included a monthly print ad in the newspaper, as well as event listings and bIV media attendance and publications about our Forecast dinner . we are looking to develop a long term relationship with other local media going forward, from reporters to other promotional opportu-nities . with this goal in mind, we placed an ad in bC business, a monthly glossy magazine, which we will continue on a quarterly basis for 2008-09 . samples of these ads and other articles may be viewed at www .cfavancouver .com/publi-cawareness .

we continue to improve our relation-ships with local professionals through their associations, such as the Institute of Chartered accountants of b .C ., Certified Management accountants society of b .C . and the law society of b .C . we are planning networking events with these professionals, including a CFa day type of event in the fall of 2008, as well as our speaker programs . this year, the CFa Institute annual Con-ference was held in Vancouver . we had a great representation of local media at the three day event . numerous articles appeared in the financial press across the globe and within b .C . thank you to all members who par-ticipated in the quarterly Canadian CFa society member market polls that the toronto CFa society administers for us .

one of our past presidents, Ian robert-son, CFa, was interviewed on television on bnn in april 2008 about the results of the spring 2008 poll . as well, the local print media has written numerous articles on these poll results . we continue to look for CFa Vancouver members that are willing to speak with local media on a variety of investment or CFa Institute topics . suggestions and volunteer assistance are always welcome . If you would like to learn more about speaking or volunteer opportunities, please contact me at: lisa .dempsey@rbc .com .

public awarenesslisa dempsey, CFa

For more information about the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, visit www.CFAVancouver.com

How do you fi nd an advisor you can trust? Look for three letters after an investment advisor’s name:

CFA®. It’s proof you’re working with a professional who has not only passed the industry’s most rigorous examinations,

but who also–every year– makes the commitment to put investor interests fi rst.

Three lettersthat speak volumes

CFA Vancouver.indd 1 6/2/08 4:00:11 PM

“CFa Vancouver is an organization run by volunteers”thank you for supporting CFa Vancouver .

8NewsletterFall 2008

Volunteer appreciation

1: Kathy Leavens, Past President – Troy Peart, Director – Donna Jones, Past President; 2: Julian Carson & Jes-

sie Bobinski – Directors; 3: Daniel Wong , Director with Mark Fattedad, Volunteer; 4: Miika Makela , Volunteer

– Jan Campfens, Director – Levente Mady, Volunteer; 5: Jeffrey Porter, Director with Leigh Tynan, hostess

1 2

3

45

9NewsletterFall 2008

the role oF unIVersIty relatIons is to provide support to the university/Col-lege Communities .

during the 2007/2008 year, CFa Vancou-ver co-sponsored (along with odlum brown limited and leith wheeler Invest-ment Counsel limited) the bC portfolio Management Challenge Competition (bCpMC) . the competition was open to university and college students . each team was given $1,000,000 in hypotheti-cal capital to manage for a four and one half month period . this is an excellent opportunity for students to become familiar with various types of invest-ments . this year, during the period of the challenge, the benchmark rate

of return was in excess of negative 16% . the winning team had a rate of return well in excess of positive 16% . In discussions with the students, it seems like the winning teams in fact do apply strategy . possibly some of these strate-gies were seeded by CFa Charter holders that were members of CFa Vancouver, okanagan CFa society, and CFa Victoria, who volunteered as mentors . It should be mentioned that the success of the bCpMC is largely due to the efforts of brook Campbell who has just retired . we also held a number of meetings and attended CFa information sessions with students at bCIt, sFu and ubC . topics that were discussed included providing

an overview of the CFa program, and explaining the skills and competencies necessary to become successful in the investment industry . one activity of the Member programs that should be mentioned was a whiskey tasting event held in the spring designed to enhance CFa Vancouver’s relationship with the academic community and facili-tate networking of practitioners with the academic community .

during the up coming year we would like to expand our level of participation with the university community . to implement these ideas, we would like to encourage all members to contact us and volunteer .

university relationsderek yee, CFa

PCR AnnouncementCFA Institute and CFA Vancouver are pleased to announce the election of Janine Guenther, CFA member and past president of our society, as the Presidents Council Repre-sentative Canadian Region. Janine’s term will commence on 1 September 2008 through 2010.Please join us in welcoming Janine to the panel of global Presidents Council Representatives!

10NewsletterFall 2008

president’s welcomewelCoMe to the start of another year for CFa Vancouver members . as your board, we look forward to providing you with a high quality experience as a member of CFa Vancouver . the board, over the past year, has worked to refresh and update our strategic plan . we continue to look to our membership to help us identify our Mission and Vision as a society . as it stands currently, CFa Vancouver’s Mission is:

to enhance the investment profession by promoting high ethical behavior, profes-sional excellence and fellowship .

our stated goals over the coming years are:

• Tobethe“go-to”organizationinBritishColumbiaforhighqualityandinnovativeprofessional development opportunities for finance professionals;

• Tobeadynamicorganizationof1500members,ahighpercentageofwhomareactively engaged in enhancing the value of the society by willingly giving of their time as volunteers and openly sharing their knowledge and expertise with one another; and

• Tobewidelyrecognized,wellrespected,andhighlyvaluedbyinvestors,academia,and the business community in the Vancouver area because of the membership’s unerring commitment to ethics and professional excellence .

accordingly, the board’s multi-year areas of focus guiding CFa Vancouver in fulfilling its Mission and achieving its Vision are to:

• EnhanceawarenessoftheCFAcharterasthepreeminentcredentialforinvestment professionals;

• EnhancethevaluepropositionthatCFAVancouverofferstomembersandcandi-dates; and

• StrengthenCFAVancouver’sabilitytoeffectivelysource,engage,andutilizevolun-teers and staff .

the strength of any organization is the members that belong to it and work on it . the more you put into your society, the more you will get out of it! over the coming year weaskthatyougetinvolved–makeitaprioritytoattendoneofthemanyprogramswe have scheduled, come out and join us at one of the social networking sessions, and make sure you mark your calendars for the Forecast dinner in late January .

I look forward to seeing you over the course of the year .

sincerely,

Al Tynan, CFA President

executive officers & directorspresIdent alan tynan, CFa

VICe-presIdent Jeffrey porter, CFa

seCretary Iqbal tejpar, CFa

treasurer Julian Carson, CFa

directors daren atkinson, CFaJessie bobinski, CFaJan Campfens, CFalisa dempsey, CFaCatherine heath, CFatroy peart, CFadaniel wong, CFaderek yee, CFa

Committee Chairs prograMs Jan Campfens, CFa Miika Makela

CandIdates daren atkinson, CFa

MeMbershIp daniel wong, CFa

publIC awareness lisa dempsey, CFa

unIVersIty relatIons derek yee, CFa

ForeCast dInner Jessie bobinski, CFa

Volunteer Co-ordInator troy peart, CFa

2008/09 board of directors

11NewsletterFall 2008