GAM Story - Transcript

Speaker

Dialogue

 

Beginning of video

 

A culture of excellence

 

 

Dagmara Fijalkowski

Senior Vice President & Senior Portfolio Manager,

Head of Global Fixed Income and Currencies

Toronto, Canada

Dagmara Fijalkowski

Our system, our entire decision-making system and compensation systems for fund managers is geared towards that collective success. So, nobody is recognized for “more assets” under management to their name. What we are first and foremost recognized is for success of the funds, to which we contribute our expertise.

 

John Utter

Head, Institutional Client Service

Minneapolis, U.S.

John Utter

The culture is one of collaboration and teamwork. Very few egos, very few superstars, very few rock stars. We know that our goal is to put clients’ interest first. And we do it in a teamwork environment.

 

Scott Lysakowski

Head, Canadian Equity Research

Vancouver, Canada

Scott Lysakowski

We all share in the outcome. We all contribute to the results that we deliver for our clients.

 

Habib Subjally

Senior Portfolio Manager and Head, Global Equities

London, U.K.

Habib Subjally

At the end of the day, without our clients, we have, we have nothing, right? So, it’s completely client-focused, which means we are very meritocratic and very transparent. We have to be, ultimately, we are judged on what we deliver to our clients.

 

Daniel E. Chornous

Chief Investment Officer

Toronto, Canada

Daniel E. Chornous

Well, I think the part that we’re probably the most proud of was never planned. It’s a great culture. That results from the people that are there, the size of the footprint that we have, but everywhere we go the culture is effective, and it’s polite and it’s collegial. Which I think the sum of all this, and it really has a lot to do with the way the firm grew, is that we have a learning culture. And investment professionals thrive in a learning culture, and performance thrives in a learning culture.

 

Sarah Riopelle

Vice President & Senior Portfolio Manager,

Investment Solutions

Toronto, Canada

Sarah Riopelle

We’re such a collaborative culture, everybody’s always bending over backwards to try and help other people out. If you see somebody struggling, you always put your hand up and say: “Is there something I can do to help you?”

Habib Subjally

There’s a real intellectual humility about this firm and I think that’s a real strength and a really important part of that culture.

 

Stephen Burke

Vice President, Fixed Income

Vancouver, Canada

Stephen Burke

But with respect to the investment process itself I think humility is what makes you ask: “How can I do better tomorrow?” even after you’ve had the best day or the best quarter you can remember.

 

Murphy O’Flaherty

Senior Equity Analyst

Boston, U.S.

Murphy O’Flaherty

I think it’s really important to be able to feel like you’re learning from your colleagues and inspired by your colleagues. And different backgrounds I think bring different strengths and different ideas, and that’s very valuable.  

 

Philippe Langham

Senior Portfolio Manager and Head, Emerging                  

Market Equities

London, U.K.

Philippe Langham

So, for me in terms of building up a team, diversity has been an important factor and we benefit from diversity in terms of gender, in terms of philosophy, in terms of personality, in terms of backgrounds. 

 

Damon Williams

Chief Executive Officer

Toronto, Canada

Damon Williams

It makes for great conversations, great perspectives and it helps us get better answers, as we all help each other internally. We’re competitive externally, but very collaborate internally.

 

Eric Lascelles

Chief Economist

Toronto, Canada

Eric Lascelles

To me the astonishing thing is the level of teamwork and really it’s the resourcing that exists right across the firm and the ability to have experts at almost everything at your fingertips. And so, I suppose I would nominally be that economic expert, but we have technical experts and evaluation people and quants who are building up models and systems and really that combination is what creates the ability to win and to succeed. It’s not any one person, I don't think you can win reliably in the investing world with one or two people. It takes a team and a team is what we’ve got.

 

RBC Global

Asset Management

 

End of video