Assets of more than $1 billion make investment management for the Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension Fund (JPFPF) a high-stakes endeavor. Bentley students got an unprecedented inside look at the client–money manager relationship during a December presentation on campus.
The first-of-its-kind event took place in the university’s financial Trading Room. There, portfolio managers at Eaton Vance and the Boston Company made presentations to 20 undergraduate and graduate students and to JPFPF trustee and Bentley parent Peter Sleiman. The topic: annual performance by the two firms in overseeing $200 million in investments for the Florida-based pension fund.
“This seemed like a great opportunity to help further Bentley’s goal of blending classroom education with real-world experience,” explains Sleiman, who proposed the presentation. His son, Paul, is a Bentley sophomore.
Spirited Exchange
Discussion explored undervalued stocks with good potential and highlighted the importance of researching international investments by visiting other countries to study their economy and general business climate. The session ended with spirited questions and exchanges between the money managers and Bentley students.
Gibbons Professor of Finance Jahangir (Jay) Sultan and Trading Room Manager Richard Gibble lent support in facilitating the program. Also attending were representatives from Summit Financial Advisors, an investment consulting group that works with the JPFPF.
“Students learned about specific mandates of the pension fund and how these investment mandates are implemented to provide safe and enhanced returns, with a look at recent performance during the credit crisis,” says Sultan, a founding director of the Hughey Center for Financial Services and the Trading Room.
Value Added
These facilities proved an ideal setting for the day’s event. The Trading Room offers real-time data feeds from major equities, fixed income, futures, options exchanges, and over-the-counter markets in the United States and overseas. It often hosts corporate training seminars on securities trading, financial econometrics, risk management, and similar topics.
“The students who participated gave us a lot of wonderful feedback,” says Sultan, who hopes to see similar events in the future. “They felt it was an outstanding and innovative program, and said they learned a great deal.”
Dan Holmes of Summit Advisors came away impressed. “The quality, depth and insight of the questions asked by Bentley students were outstanding.”