industry professionals through executive training and consulting.

What features of the CFA Program attracted you?

The greatest feature is the opportunity to drill down into a particular area, such as portfolio management, to understand the nuances. I often had undergraduate students ask whether they should pursue an MBA degree or the CFA designation, and I would answer, “Both.” I would get them to visualize a “T”, and I would describe the typical MBA program as the horizontal top of the T, with the breadth of subjects and courses. I would describe the CFA Program as the vertical part of the T, with the depth of coverage in areas such as equities, fixed income, derivates, and risk management.

I also like the discipline that is required to pass each level, and how it isn’t a given that you’ll be successful the first time, which adds to the sense of accomplishment when you are awarded the charter. I distinctly remember one Saturday afternoon in June 1995 on the University of Toronto campus where I was completing the Level I exam in a large auditorium with row upon row of desks. These were the days when the Level I exam was only offered once a year. The proctor announced, “Five minutes to go.” I heard a discouraged candidate to the right of me mutter under his breath, “You mean one year and five minutes!”

Has the CFA charter helped you in your career?

It has helped me in several ways. It helped me round out my knowledge base in topics that were less familiar to me. It gave me a better perspective as to why certain topics were important to practitioners and how financial tools are used in practice. As an academic, it gave me instant credibility with those in the investment community. And it allowed me to tap into that new community through my local chapter.

What advice would you give to people pursuing or considering pursuing the designation?

I would recommend getting started as soon as you can. If you are a student, you are already in study mode, and so I would highly recommend writing the Level I exam late in your program. It will also send a strong signal to potential employers that you are serious about developing a career in the industry. I would recommend carving out regular study time well in advance of the exam rather than trying to cram. I was fortunate to pass each exam on my first try, but I know many successful professionals for whom that wasn’t the case, so don’t be discouraged by any setbacks.

What have been some of the major challenges and achievements in your career?

My biggest career challenge was getting tenure, as I was a somewhat late bloomer in terms of getting academic publications. Obtaining the CFA designation was also a major achievement. I’ve been fortunate to receive research and teaching awards throughout my career, including the Hillsdale Investment Management, CFA Society Toronto Research Award, and the William F. Sharpe Award for Scholarship in Financial Research for a paper that I coauthored in The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.

But the biggest reward for me is to watch former students succeed in their careers— perhaps in spite of what they learned in my class. To give a few examples, Fred Pinto is CEO of CFA Toronto Society; Aaron Bennett, CIO of University Pension Plan Ontario, was recently named one of Canada’s Best Executives by the Globe and Mail; and Nicole Musicco was formerly the CIO at CalPERS.

How do the career objectives of today’s generation of CFA and MBA candidates compare to those of the 1990s?

What’s common is that finance and investment careers remain as popular as they did decades ago. But today, there are many more exciting career paths, including private markets and private wealth. Competition for jobs remains fierce and so anything applicants can do to try to distinguish themselves might tip the scale. That’s where the CFA designation can be a major asset.

What are your most valued sources of insights and investment ideas?

in the Journal of Finance, articulated that there’s only one free lunch in investing, and that’s diversification. I believe in investing with a long horizon and in the importance of recognizing and trying to overcome our behavioural biases and emotions.

We understand you are you working on another book; can you tell us about the new project?

I’m excited and honoured to be writing William (Bill) Sharpe’s authorized biography. He was awarded the 1990 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences along with Markowitz and Merton Miller. I’m sure every business school student is aware of Bill’s capital asset pricing model, beta, and the Sharpe ratio, but a lot of his major achievements are less well known.

Bill developed style analysis and the binomial approach to option pricing. Bill likes to think of himself as a “practical theorist,” as he had a successful foot in both academia and practice. Bill cofounded Financial Engines, one of the very first robo-advisors that eventually became a multi-billion-dollar Nasdaq-listed firm.

Bill’s contributions go even further. In 1959, while at the RAND Corporation, he coauthored one of the first papers that described a carbon tax to fight the persistent smog in the Los Angeles Basin. In 1967, he wrote one of the first books on the computer programming language BASIC. Perhaps, as he has claimed, his most impactful paper is a short piece written in 1991 in the Financial Analysts Journal titled “The Arithmetic of Active Management.” It focuses on the importance of fees to investment performance, and the paper is still hotly debated today.

The book I’m writing is also about the times in which Bill has lived. It traces the evolution of the investment industry over much of the past century. Two major trends associated with Bill are quantitative investing and the evolution of index funds. Bill’s 1961 PhD dissertation may have been the first one in finance to include Fortran code. And of course, the implications of Bill’s capital asset pricing model suggest that individuals should invest in “the market” portfolio, which is the primary motivation for the trillions of dollars that continue to pour into index funds. I’m hoping to complete this project in late 2026. If you have any great stories about Bill, or know anyone who does, please reach out to me.

technical notes in the areas of investments and financial management. He has over 50 publications including empirical studies in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, as well as practitioner- oriented publications such as Financial Analysts Journal. He has also co-authored Cases in Financial Management and is editor of Finance and Money Market Cases. 

He has been a consultant, expert witness, and designer and facilitator of executive training courses in portfolio management, finance for non-financial executives, value based management, risk management, and other investment areas. He’s a member of the Advisory Board of Financial Economics Network’s Courses, Cases and Teaching Abstracts Journal and a former member of the Editorial Board of Financial Analysts Journal and Pacific-Basin Finance Journal. He’s currently a member of Western University’s joint pension board, was formerly a Director and Chair of the Investment Committee of Foundation Western (Western’s alumni endowment fund) and was on the Advisory Board of Tremont Capital Opportunity Trust.