COMPETITION CFA INSTITUTE RESEARCH CHALLENGE SOUTHWEST U.S. FINALS

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1 COMPETITION CFA INSTITUTE RESEARCH CHALLENGE SOUTHWEST U.S. FINALS Leah R. Bennett, CFA, CIC Managing Director and CIO King Investment Advisors Leah R. Bennett is a portfolio manager and investment analyst for King Investment Advisors, Inc. She has been with KING seventeen years and has twenty years of experience in the investment business. Leah, a CFA charterholder and a Chartered Investment Counselor, is a graduate of Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Economics. Before joining KING, Leah was a research analyst for Capital Research & Management in Los Angeles. Currently, Leah is Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer for KING, as well as a member of the firm s Investment Advisory Group. She is the incoming CFA Institute Presidents Council Representative for the South Central United States, Latin and South America Region, and is a former President and Director of the CFA Society of Houston. Leah is a member of the CFA Institute and co-founder of the CFA Institute-Texas Investment Research Challenge, having formerly served as Chairman of the organization s education committee. Leah serves on the M. A. Wright Fund Oversight Board, Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, Rice University. She is also a Texas Angel for the Texas Wall Street Women. Roddy Cummins, CFA Sr. Vice President, Chief Investment Officer GuideStone Rodric Cummins joined GuideStone in 1998 as Executive Officer, Investment Services. He is responsible for overseeing the investment management process of GSCM, a registered investment advisor providing advisory services to GuideStone and GuideStone Funds; as well as other investment advisory clients. He is a member of GuideStone s Investment Strategy Group and chairs GuideStone s Committee on Socially Responsible Investing. Prior to joining GuideStone, Mr. Cummins spent 14 years at the Baptist Foundation of Texas where he was Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, specializing in the management of endowment and planned giving assets. He began his career as a financial analyst at Mobil Oil Company. He is a member of the CFA Society of Dallas-Fort Worth s Strategic Advisory Board and the National Society of Institutional Investment Professionals Texas Advisory Board. Mr. Cummins earned his Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance with honors from Texas A&M University and is a CFA charterholder. His professional affiliations include the CFA Institute, the CFA Society of Dallas-Fort Worth and the Dallas Chapter of the Society of Pension Professionals.

2 Marla L. Harkness, CFA, CEBS Presidents Council Chair, CFA Institute Senior Portfolio Manager, TIAA-CREF Marla Harkness, CFA, is presently Senior Portfolio Manager at TIAA-CREF in Pasadena, California. She has over 30 years of experience in the asset management business, having served as Co-Director of Wealth Management at Pacific Income Advisers Inc., in Santa Monica, California, Portfolio Manager and Chief Compliance Officer at Financial Management Advisors Inc. and Director of Equity Investments and Director of Research at Oakwood Capital Management, a firm she co-founded. Earlier experience included Wells Fargo Investment Advisors, where Marla managed the firm s institutional accounts in Southern California. During her career, she has managed a Core equity fund and co-managed an Equity Income Fund, a growth mutual fund and a convertibles fund. Marla holds a BA from Pennsylvania State University, a MBA from UCLA and a JD from Whittier College School of Law. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Certified Employee Benefit Specialist. Marla is a former president of CFA Society Los Angeles, was a CFA Program grader for 14 years, served on the CFA Program Council of Examiners, was Vice Chair of CFA Institute s Private Client Task Force, was Presidents Council Representative for the Western U.S. Region and is currently in her third year as Presidents Council Chair for CFA Institute. Brian McManus, CFA Chief Investment Officer Emeritus Westwood Management Mr. McManus earned a BSME from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an MBA from Harvard University and a J.D. from Suffolk University. He served four years in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps as an officer, with duty in Guantanamo, Laos, Thailand and Iwo Jima. During his distinguished career, Mr. McManus has held portfolio management, advisory and director of research positions at a number of firms. Some of these include Bass Brothers Enterprises, Q Investments, the Anne Burnett and Charles D. Tandy Foundation, the Hamilton Management Company of Denver and Westwood Management Company of Dallas. Mr. McManus is a past president of the Denver Society of Security Analysts, the Fort Worth Harvard Business School Club and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Alumni Association. Currently he serves on the DFW CFA Advisory Board, the Advisory Board of Smith Asset Management Group and The John G. & Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation. He earned his CFA Charter in 1973.

3 Dan Meader, CFA, CPA Founder and Managing Partner, Trinity Private Equity Group Past Chair, CFA Institute Board of Governors Daniel S. Meader, CFA, CPA currently serves at the founder and managing partner of Trinity Private Equity Group, LP, a private equity investment firm based in Southlake, Texas. For the past 13 years, Trinity Private Equity Group (formerly Trinity Advisory Group, LP) has invested in and focused on making direct private equity investments in both operating companies and direct purchase real estate. The firm focuses on small-cap private equity and direct investing in real estate and currently manages 19 companies in its $250 million portfolio of assets. Prior to starting Trinity Private Equity Group in 1999, Mr. Meader served as an executive vice president for Tara Capital Partners, LP, a hedge fund focused on investing and trading in retail and restaurant-oriented public securities. While at Tara Capital Partners, Mr. Meader was involved in both the investment management of the equity portfolio and fundraising. From 1989 to 1997, Mr. Meader worked for Sowell & Co. (or its affiliates) a mid-sized leveraged buyout firm based in Dallas, Texas. While there, he served in various capacities, including interim Chief Financial Officer and Director of three different portfolio investments. Mr. Meader began his career at InterFirst Bank of Dallas (now Bank of America), and joined the Corporate Banking Group in From 1987 to 1989, Mr. Meader worked for ABQ Capital Markets and co-managed a portfolio of high-yield bonds and preferred stocks, building the portfolio of over 30 different securities. While at ABQ, Mr. Meader was instrumental in developing credit underwriting standards and portfolio monitoring tools for investments. A graduate of Southern Methodist University (cum laude), Mr. Meader received his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 1991 and became a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Mr. Meader currently serves as a member of the Board of Governors of the CFA Institute and is the immediate past Chairman of the Institute. He also serves on the Executive Committee and is currently serving as Chair of the Nominating Committee. Mr. Meader formerly chaired the Board of Governors, External Relations and Volunteer Involvement Committee and Presidents Council at CFA Institute. In addition, he serves on the board of directors for the Dallas/Fort Worth CFA Society and on several Trinity portfolio company boards.

4 Tom Stringfellow, CFA, CPA, CFP President Frost Investment Advisors Tom L. Stringfellow is the chief investment officer for the Frost Wealth Advisors, a division of Frost Bank, and president of Frost Investment Advisors, LLC. In these roles, Tom oversees all mutual fund and institutional portfolio management activities, research and trading for Frost s investment management entities, and serves as a fund manager for Frost Investment Advisors Growth Equity Fund. Since joining Frost in 1980, Tom has been active in the local and national investment community. He speaks regularly at regional investment conferences and lectures at St. Mary s University in San Antonio and the University of Texas at San Antonio. The co-author of a nationally published article about asset allocation, Tom is also a regular contributor to Frost Investment Advisors quarterly client newsletter. His service to a number of professional organizations includes an assignment as chairman of the Investments Committee and an appointment to the National Council, both for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Also a volunteer for the CFA Institute, Tom has served on the organization s Financial Accounting Policies Committee and as president of its San Antonio affiliate CFA society. He is also a past president of the San Antonio Business and Economics Society, a local chapter of the National Association for Business Economics, a professional association for business economists and those who use economics in the workplace. Tom earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Texas State University (formerly Southwest Texas State University), a Master of Arts degree in economics from St. Mary s University and a Master of Business degree from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi (formerly Texas A&I University). Augmenting his professional experience, Tom has earned the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER certification and the Certified Public Accountant certification and is a holder of the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

5 COMPETITION CFA INSTITUTE RESEARCH CHALLENGE SOUTHWEST U.S. FINALS