Equity Research and Valuation 2018

Aswath Damodaran is the Kerschner Family Chair Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University, where he teaches corporate finance and valuation to MBAs, executives, and practitioners. He is the author of five books on valuation, three books on corporate finance, and three books on portfolio management, and he was co-editor of the book Investment Management with Peter Bernstein. Professor Damodaran has published articles in a number of journals, including the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and the Journal of Finance. He was named the most popular US business school professor in a 2011 survey by Businessweek. Professor Damodaran also writes a popular blog, Musings on Markets. He holds an MBA and a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Bryan Healey is the chief technology officer and cofounder of Aiera. Previously, he was the Senior SDM at Amazon Alexa and headed three groups of 25 engineers for NLU, ASR, and Data. More recently, Mr. Healey was director of AI at Lola.

Thomas J. Lee, CFA, is co-founder and managing partner at Fundstrat Global Advisors. He has over 20 years of experience in macro markets and equity research. Previously, Mr. Lee served as chief equity strategist at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and was a telecommunications equity research analyst and a small-cap equity/bankruptcy/reorganization strategist. He has served as managing director at Salomon Smith Barney and also worked at Kidder, Peabody & Co. and Oppenheimer. Mr. Lee was ranked 1, 2, or 3 by Institutional Investor every year from 1998 to 2013. He is a member of the Economic Club of New York. Mr. Lee received his BSE from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in finance and accounting.

S. Joyce Li, CFA is a Portfolio Manager at Matthews Asia. As an independent, privately owned firm, Matthews Asia is the largest dedicated Asia investment specialist in the United States, with offices in San Francisco, London, and Hong Kong. Prior to joining Matthews Asia in 2016, she was a Portfolio Manager and Principal at Marvin & Palmer Associates, investing in Asia markets since 2007. Ms. Li received an M.B.A. with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Virginia. She is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese.

Caitlin Long is a 22-year Wall Street veteran who has been active with bitcoin since 2012. As co-founder of the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition, she recently helped drive Wyoming’s trail-blazing blockchain legislation, with the passage of five bills and the recognition of utility tokens as a new form of property. Previously, Ms. Long was chairman and president of Symbiont, an enterprise blockchain company, where she jointly spearheaded a blockchain project for delivering index data to Vanguard. In addition, she ran Morgan Stanley’s pension solutions business, held senior roles at Credit Suisse, and began her career at Salomon Brothers. Ms. Long has a BA from the University of Wyoming, a master of public policy from the Kennedy School of Government, and a JD from Harvard Law School.

Kate Moore is a managing director and chief equity strategist for BlackRock and is a member of the BlackRock Investment Institute. She is responsible for developing global equity market insights and actionable investment advice, as well as for representing BlackRock’s market views for US equities. Previously, Ms. Moore was a chief investment strategist at J.P. Morgan. She has also served as the senior global equity strategist at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research, an emerging markets strategist at Moore Capital Management, and a member of the Global Strategy team at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Ms. Moore began her career as a strategy consultant for both Mitchell Madison Group and Silver Oak Partners. She holds a BA in political and social thought from the University of Virginia and an MA in political economy from the University of Chicago.

Russell Napier is author of The Solid Ground investment report for institutional investors and co-founder of ERIC, an investment research portal. He has worked in the investment business for 30 years and advised global institutional investors on asset allocation for 25 years. Professor Napier is author of Anatomy of The Bear: Lessons from Wall Street’s Four Great Bottoms and is the founder and director of “The Practical History of Financial Markets” course in the Edinburgh Business School MBA program. He is a director of the Mid Wynd International Investment Trust and a member of the investment advisory committees of Cerno Capital and Kennox Asset Management. Professor Napier founded the Library of Mistakes, a business and financial history library. He is a fellow of CFA UK and an honorary professor at Heriot-Watt University and the University of Stirling. Professor Napier has degrees in law from Queen’s University Belfast and Magdalene College, University of Cambridge.

Antti Petajisto is a researcher and portfolio manager at quantPORT, a systematic multi-strategy asset manager and formerly the proprietary trading desk of Jefferies. Previously, he was a portfolio manager and researcher at LMR Partners, a multi-strategy hedge fund, as well as in BlackRock’s Scientific Active Equities group, where he focused on researching new alpha signals and implementing quantitative trading strategies in global equity markets, including emerging markets. Dr. Petajisto has also worked as a finance professor at the Yale School of Management and the NYU Stern School of Business, where he taught MBA courses on investments, portfolio management, and behavioral finance. His academic research includes the development of the Active Share concept for quantifying active portfolio management, performance evaluation of money managers, pricing inefficiencies in exchange-traded funds, and the price impact of passive indexing strategies. Dr. Petajisto has an MSc in engineering physics from the Helsinki University of Technology and a PhD in finance from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Ken Sena is the CEO and cofounder of Aiera. Prior to joining Aiera, Mr. Sena was the global head of Internet equity research at Wells Fargo Securities and Evercore ISI. He has also held equity research positions at Credit Suisse and Bear Stearns, which followed corporate and banking stints at MTV Networks, Time Inc., and Salomon Smith Barney.

Kim Shannon, CFA, is founder, president, and chief investment officer at Sionna Investment Managers. Previously, she served as chief investment officer and senior vice president at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers Canada Inc. Ms. Shannon is a past president of CFA Society Toronto. She is currently a member of the C.D. Howe Institute’s National Council, the CFA Institute Financial Analysts Seminar Board of Regents (where she previously served as chair), and the board of the Brandes Institute. Ms. Shannon also serves as a board member of the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance, the Canadian Business Diversity Council, the Women’s College Hospital investment committee, and the United Corporation (a listed closed-end fund). She holds a bachelor of commerce and economics degree and an MBA degree from the University of Toronto.

Ed Yardeni is the president of Yardeni Research, Inc., a provider of global investment strategy and asset allocation analyses and recommendations. He previously served as chief investment strategist at Oak Associates, Prudential Equity Group, and Deutsche Bank’s US equities division in New York City. Dr. Yardeni has also served as the chief economist at CJ Lawrence, Prudential-Bache Securities, and EF Hutton. He has taught at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and was an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Dr. Yardeni has also held positions at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the US Treasury Department. He frequently appears on CNBC and Bloomberg Television and is quoted in the financial press, including the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the New York Times, and Barron’s. Dr. Yardeni is author of Predicting the Markets: A Professional Autobiography. He completed his undergraduate studies magna cum laude at Cornell University, received a master’s degree in international relations from Yale University, and earned his PhD in economics from Yale University.