Milwaukee Paper on ASAP Change
Fund program changes leaders
New director named for famed UW course in investment
By AVRUM D. LANKalank@journalsentinel.com
Posted: July 10, 2007
A new Mark is about to be stamped on the Applied Security Analysis Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business.
Mark Fedenia is stepping down after 21 years at the helm of the nationally known program that has graduate students managing a portfolio of more than $44 million in university money.
Replacing him as just the fourth director in the 37-year history of the program is Mark Ready. Both are to remain professors in the business school.
"I have been thinking about what do I want to do for the rest of my career," said Fedenia, 52, a graduate of Nathan Hale High School in West Allis. "The program has been kind of a drag on my ability to do research.
"I worked with students so long, and the idea was to get them to make decisions. At some point, I'm interested in making decisions myself."
When he hands over the reins on Aug. 15, Fedenia will have more time to make investment decisions as a principal and portfolio manager for Nakoma Capital Management, a Madison firm that invests about $95 million in a mutual fund and private accounts.
He said the decision to step down was mutual between him and Michael M. Knetter, business school dean.
Knetter said the change was made for a "whole host of reasons."
Knetter, who took his job in 2002, said: "I am probably not going to be dean for 20 years. Mark has run the program for 20 years, and he has done a fabulous job. At the same time, there are other faculty that I think would like a chance to be involved in a program like that."
Ready said: "It is a change of the person who happens to be director, not a change of focus or change of process. For the most part, it is going to be very similar."
Ready, 51, has been at UW since 1990. He is a former chief economist for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
During Fedenia's tenure with the program, assets under management grew from about $250,000. Some of the growth stemmed from returns in equity and fixed-income portfolios, and some from donated money. Students take the course in the final year of their two-year MBA programs.
"By the time I went through, I was pretty much guaranteed a good industry job," said Brad Tank, a 1982 graduate of the program who serves on its advisory board.
"There is a big alumni program that believes in the program and interviews out of the program," said Tank, a managing director for Lehman Brothers in Chicago.
Stephen J. Hawk started the program. It was among the first programs of its kind in the nation, although the concept has spread widely since then.
Marquette University has a similar program for undergraduates, with assets of about $1.2 million. UW-Milwaukee is starting one.
New director named for famed UW course in investment
By AVRUM D. LANKalank@journalsentinel.com
Posted: July 10, 2007
A new Mark is about to be stamped on the Applied Security Analysis Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business.
Mark Fedenia is stepping down after 21 years at the helm of the nationally known program that has graduate students managing a portfolio of more than $44 million in university money.
Replacing him as just the fourth director in the 37-year history of the program is Mark Ready. Both are to remain professors in the business school.
"I have been thinking about what do I want to do for the rest of my career," said Fedenia, 52, a graduate of Nathan Hale High School in West Allis. "The program has been kind of a drag on my ability to do research.
"I worked with students so long, and the idea was to get them to make decisions. At some point, I'm interested in making decisions myself."
When he hands over the reins on Aug. 15, Fedenia will have more time to make investment decisions as a principal and portfolio manager for Nakoma Capital Management, a Madison firm that invests about $95 million in a mutual fund and private accounts.
He said the decision to step down was mutual between him and Michael M. Knetter, business school dean.
Knetter said the change was made for a "whole host of reasons."
Knetter, who took his job in 2002, said: "I am probably not going to be dean for 20 years. Mark has run the program for 20 years, and he has done a fabulous job. At the same time, there are other faculty that I think would like a chance to be involved in a program like that."
Ready said: "It is a change of the person who happens to be director, not a change of focus or change of process. For the most part, it is going to be very similar."
Ready, 51, has been at UW since 1990. He is a former chief economist for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
During Fedenia's tenure with the program, assets under management grew from about $250,000. Some of the growth stemmed from returns in equity and fixed-income portfolios, and some from donated money. Students take the course in the final year of their two-year MBA programs.
"By the time I went through, I was pretty much guaranteed a good industry job," said Brad Tank, a 1982 graduate of the program who serves on its advisory board.
"There is a big alumni program that believes in the program and interviews out of the program," said Tank, a managing director for Lehman Brothers in Chicago.
Stephen J. Hawk started the program. It was among the first programs of its kind in the nation, although the concept has spread widely since then.
Marquette University has a similar program for undergraduates, with assets of about $1.2 million. UW-Milwaukee is starting one.
posted by Odoacer at
3:11 PM
5 Comments:
I feel bad that I was holding Mark back from doing research.
Only mark would make a comment like that publicly. "I have been thinking about what to do with the rest of my career..." Bitch your career was doing nothing and now you have to do something. I love Mark, but think its hilarious how he said we kept him from doing research...I didn't ever see that guy around the Hawk.
What is Nakoma, chopped liver?
Just a reminder... this blog is not private.
That is why you have names like Fresh and Silver Penny. And why I get e-mails about this blog which make me chuckle super hard.
Protect your reps.
Signed,
The fake MattKelly.
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