Conference Organizer and Chair
George Athanassakos, Founder & Managing Director, Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing, Ivey Business School and Greek Centre for Value Investing
Topic: “How to Determine the Quality of a CEO?”
In his opening remarks, among other things, Dr. Athanassakos expressed, once again, his frustration with academics who have paid little attention to value investing and stock picking over the years and thus lack a basic understanding of what value investing is. As Dr. Athanassakos explained, an area of considerable importance in value investing, and something that academics totally dismiss in their diversification dogma, is understanding management. He referred to the two roles that CEO perform. One is that of an operator and the other is that of a capital allocator. One can judge the characteristics of good operators in two ways: quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative part is easier to carry out. One needs to examine several of the company’s financial ratios over time and compare them to the ratios of peers. The better the company’s ratios compared to those of key competitors, the better job the CEO has done as an operator. The qualitative examination focuses on the manager’s character. Dr. Athanassakos argued that a good operator must demonstrate discipline and integrity. Discipline means he/she can put up with the short term pain for long term gain. Integrity means: say what he/she means and mean what they say. Enron’s managers, for example, had discipline but no integrity. And most importantly good operators understand the business. Examination CEOs background, experience, and education can tell one a lot of his/her ability to understand the business. This is of make-or-break importance for the business. The other role of a CEO, equally or even more important, is to be a good capital allocator. A good capital allocator CEO has the skills necessary to take the cash that the company generates and deploy it to the best value maximizing opportunity for the company, be it buying another company, buying back shares, paying higher dividends, reinvest within the company and so on. These are all investment decisions. In other words, the best CEOs are those who are good value creators, as well as good value seekers, i.e., good investors, more importantly value investors. Moreover, superior capital allocator CEOs attract what Lawrence Cunningham calls quality investors. These are shareholders with the longest average holding periods and most concentrated portfolios. And it turns out that good capital allocators tend to attract quality investors and vice versa, i.e., Berkshire Hathaway and Fairfax Financial. The bottom line of Dr. Athanassakos’ introductory comments was that best CEOs are those who are efficient operators (i.e., value creators) and diligent capital allocators (i.e., value seekers). And that unlike what academics believe understanding if the CEO is right for the job is not a wasted effort. Stock by stock analysis is important, and diversification will not save us all. Dr. Athanassakos discusses management quality in great depth in his recently published book “Value Investing: From Theory to Practice”.
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Keynote Speaker
Introduction by: Jeffrey Stacey, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Stacey Muirhead Capital Management, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Presenter: Benjamin P. Watsa, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Marval Capital Ltd., Chairman of Fairfax India Holdings Corporation and a director of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, Toronto, ON, Canada
Topic: “India – Our Journey and the Opportunity“
Video Forthcoming
PowerPoint Presentation
Value Investor Fireside Conversation Session
Presenter: Mohnish Pabrai, Managing Partner, Pabrai Investment Funds, Austin, Texas, USA
Topic: “The Joys of Being a Shameless Cloner!”
Moderator: Jeffrey D. Stacey, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Stacey Muirhead Capital Management, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Video Forthcoming
Presenter: Francisco García Paramés, Chairman and CIO, Cobas Asset Management, Madrid, Spain
Topic: “My Experience As a Long Term Investor”
Moderator: Luis Garcia Alvarez, Equity Portfolio Manager, MAPFRE Asset Management, Madrid, Spain
Video Forthcoming
Value Investor Presentation Session
Presenter: Jeffrey Stacey, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Stacey Muirhead Capital Management, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Topic: “Investing the Stacey Muirhead Way”
PowerPoint Presentation
Presenter: Dale Zhang, Founder & Chief Investment Officer, Entrust Evergreen Partners, Hong Kong
Topic: “Investing in Asia: Finding Value and Moats”
PowerPoint Presentation
Presenter: Luis García Álvarez, Equity Portfolio Manager, MAPFRE Asset Management, Madrid, Spain
Topic: “10 Years Looking for Value: Mistakes Made, Lessons Learnt and Food for Thought”
PowerPoint Presentation
Presenter: Andrew Brenton, Chief Executive Officer, Turtle Creek Asset Management, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Topic: “A Better Kind of Private Equity”
PowerPoint Presentation
Presenter: Django Davidson, Partner, Portfolio Manager, Hosking Partners, London, UK
Topic: “The Capital Cycle: Avoiding Bubbles and Un-Earthing Gems”
PowerPoint Presentation
Special Presentation by Dr. George Athanassakos (19.30 – 20.30)
Topic: “Value Investing – Who, What and Why?”
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Selected Testimonias
“Thank you George Athanassakos, Ivey Business School at Western University, Greek Centre For Value Investing, Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing – Ivey Business School at Western University for having me as the keynote speaker at the 5th European Value Investing Conference. I had a wonderful time meeting the European valueinvesting community in Lisbon!”
~ Ben Watsa
Toronto, Canada
Congratulations for this wonderful and most interesting “Value Investing Conference” held today in Lisboa. The cherry of the cake being your masterclass so well summarized”
~ Miguel V. Freitas
Lisbon, Portugal
“I would like to thank you for hosting an excellent day at the Ben Graham Centre’s 5th European Value Investing Conference! We really enjoyed the speakers, the great organisation and ofcourse the great food. Many thanks and we look forward to joining you on next edition(s).”
~ Jeroen Mutsaerts
Rotterdam, Netherlands
“That’s was so much fun. Thank you, I really enjoyed it and hope the attendees got something out of it. Really excellent event.”
~ Django Davidson
London, UK
“It was nice to meet you and attend this magnificent conference. Very high level among speakers and nice networking at dinner and lunch.”
~ Ismael García Puente
Madrid, Spain
“I didn’t have the chance to thank you for the opportunity to be part of this amazing conference.”
~ David Barbato
Porto, Portugal
“It was great seeing you last week during the European Value Conference in Lisbon – it’s a great event that keeps getting better, and I definitely plan on attending the one next year in Zurich.”
~ Pavel Begun
Toronto, Canada
“Thanks v much for an enlivening conference. Altogether a very worthwhile couple of days and it is always nice to have time to think!
~ Richard Oldfield
London, UK
CONFERENCE PHOTO GALLERY
OPENING REMARKS | Dr. George Athanassakos
KEYNOTE SPEAKER | Ben Watsa
1st PANEL PRESENTATIONS | Jeffrey Stacey, Dale Zhang & Luis García Álvarez
1st PANEL | Q&A
FIRESIDE CONVERSATION WITH MOHNISH PABRAI
2nd PANEL PRESENTATIONS | Andrew Brenton & Django Davidson
2nd PANEL | Q&A
FIRESIDE CONVERSATION WITH FRANCISCO PARAMES
NETWORKING
Thank you to our Sponsors
We would like to thank our sponsors Eurobank S.A., Eurolife FFH, MAPFRE, Fiscal.ai, Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. Trata ,Banco BPI Grupo Caixa Bank, Robotti Value Investors, Stacey Muirhead Capital Management, Centre for the Advancement of Value Investing Education, and National and Kapodistrian University of Athens for their generous support.
