2012 is off to a very good start for Toronto CFA Society. In January, we held our largest ever charter recognition event with over 175 new charterholders in attendance. Alan Meder, CFA, Vice Chair of the CFA Institute’s Board of Governors gave the key note address and encouraged the newest members of the CFA community to continue to strive for professional excellence and uphold the integrity, ethics and standards that are the foundation of the CFA designation. This is especially critical today as our industry continues to face its share of perception issues with the investing public at large.

We held our fourth annual Professional Development Day in January with the theme of Leadership: “Be Your Best Self and Manage Your Career”. Those that attended heard from a highly-regarded line-up of speakers with the focus being on the intangible, leadership qualities to complement the investment and technical skills that are table stakes in our industry.

We also moved premises in late January into a significantly larger space which affords us the opportunity to deliver enhanced, quality programming for our members and partner with other like-minded organizations to sponsor events that are mutually beneficial in a professional business setting. Additionally, we will use the new space to target outreach efforts with key employers and other stakeholders to assist our members in furthering their career aspirations. It is an investment on our members’ behalf which will certainly pay dividends in the years to come and continue the focus on our two key board of director priorities: programming and outreach.

As we move into the spring, we will, once again, continue to deliver outstanding events that interest our members, including the highly popular Wealth Management and Pension Conferences. We will also be hosting the Private Equity Symposium in April with our key note speaker David Rubenstein, co-founder and Managing Director, Carlyle Group. The conferences have become a staple of our programming and afford our members the opportunity to hear from some of the sharpest thinkers in their areas of specialty, along with time to network and discuss issues with industry colleagues. If you haven’t attended one of these events, please consider doing so this spring.

As always, we value your feedback. If you have any suggestions or ideas to assist us in furthering our key priorities of programming and outreach, please do not hesitate to reach out to anyone at our management office, board of directors or myself.