Learn from the World's Most Respected Investors
October 3rd, 2017
GIBI is proud to present the 11th Annual GIBI Investment Symposium.
Gain Insight. Find Inspiration. Give Back.
The goal of the GIBI Investment Symposium is to enlighten, inspire, and inform attendees while raising funds for two exceptional charities. This premier investment event is fully underwritten by its co-founders, so that all donations go directly to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and Vickery Meadow Youth Development Foundation.
All proceeds go to the following beneficiaries
2017 Speakers and Panelists
The GIBI Investment Symposium is fortunate to have some of the world's most respected investors generously donate their time to share their best investment ideas and insights.
William A. Ackman
CEO and Portfolio Manager, Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P.
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William Ackman is the CEO and Portfolio Manager of Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., an SEC registered investment adviser founded in 2003. Pershing Square is a concentrated research-intensive fundamental value investor in long and occasionally short investments in the public markets.
Prior to forming Pershing Square, Mr. Ackman co-founded Gotham Partners Management Co., LLC, an investment adviser that managed public and private equity hedge fund portfolios. Prior to Gotham Partners, Mr. Ackman began his career in real estate investment banking at Ackman Brothers & Singer, Inc. Mr. Ackman received an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Harvard College.
Mr. Ackman’s board memberships include Chairman of The Howard Hughes Corporation (NYSE: HHC) and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX). He is a Trustee of the Pershing Square Foundation, a member of the Board of Trustees at The Rockefeller University and the Board of Dean’s Advisors of the Harvard Business School.
Charles T. Akre, Jr.
Managing Member, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, Akre Capital Management, LLC
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Chuck has been in the securities business since 1968 and continues to be the primary person responsible for ACM’s investment advisory services & investment selection. He previously held positions as shareholder, Director, CEO of Asset Management Division and Director of Research at Johnston, Lemon & Co (a NYSE member firm). Chuck established Akre Capital Management in 1989 and for a time operated it as part of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., ending in 1999. In 2000, ACM again became independent and established its current location in 2002. Chuck holds a BA in English Literature from American University.
Harold J. (Jay) Bowen, III
President and CIO, Bowen, Hanes & Company, Inc.
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Mr. Bowen joined Bowen, Hanes & Company, Inc. in 1986. As the firm's Chief Investment Officer and economic strategist, he is responsible for the formulation and implementation of the company's economic and investment strategies. The firm has received national acclaim for its 43 year tenure as the sole manager of the City of Tampa Firefighters' and Police Officers' Pension Fund. Subsequent to his association with the company, he attended graduate school at The London School of Economics, London, England, where he completed his thesis on the international economy in 1989. He concluded an economic and investment research project in 1990 on monetary, trade, and tax policy at the Cato Institute, one of the nation's leading public policy foundations in Washington, D.C. Mr. Bowen is a member of The National Economists Club and the National Association for Business Economics and is a Trustee for the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). He has provided commentary on economic and financial issues for CNBC, the Fox News Network, the Fox Business Network, and the Financial Times. He and Bowen, Hanes have been profiled in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Barron's, Bloomberg, and The New York Times. Mr. Bowen holds a B.A. degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which he received in 1984.
David Einhorn
President, Greenlight Capital, Inc.
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David Einhorn is president of Greenlight Capital, Inc., which he co-founded in January 1996. Greenlight Capital is a value-oriented investment advisor whose goal is to achieve high absolute rates of return while minimizing the risk of capital loss.
Greenlight’s investment philosophy is to combine the analytical discipline of determining fair value with a practical understanding of markets. The firm believes that an investment approach that emphasizes intrinsic value will achieve consistent absolute investment returns and safeguard capital regardless of market conditions.
Prior to founding Greenlight Capital, Inc., David worked at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) as an analyst in the Investment Banking Group. After DLJ, Mr. Einhorn joined Siegler, Collery & Co., a buyout and investment management firm, as an investment analyst.
David is Chairman of the Board of Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLRE) and Chairman of the Board of Green Brick Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:GRBK). He is the author of Fooling Some of the People All of the Time: A Long Short Story, published in May 2008.
David graduated summa cum laude with distinction in all subjects from Cornell University, where he earned a B.A. from the College of Arts and Sciences.
Kathleen M. Gibson
President and CEO, Southwestern Medical Foundation
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Kathleen Gibson is President and CEO of Southwestern Medical Foundation - a leading charitable corporation supporting advancement in medical education, medical research and medical care. The Foundation’s assets exceed $800 million, arrayed across more than 1,000 funds, creating a financial resource that enables continuing advances in health care to benefit the citizens of the community and the world beyond for years to come. During 1943, the Foundation formed Southwestern Medical College, now known as UT Southwestern, and remains its most significant philanthropic partner.
Prior to joining Southwestern Medical Foundation, Kathleen spent thirty years in financial services, holding a number of leadership positions within Citibank and Bank of America. Kathleen joined Citibank in 2006, as Head of Citibank Texas Commercial and President of Citibank Texas. In 2007, she was named President of the Central Division, Commercial Banking, with responsibility for the Central US Commercial Business. Prior to joining Citibank, Kathleen spent twenty-five years with Bank of America and its predecessor banks, where she held top leadership roles in Corporate Banking, Commercial Banking and Asset Management; also, serving as President, Bank of America-Dallas.
Ms. Gibson has been involved in community activities in Dallas and Texas for many years. She is Past Chair of the Board of The Association of Former Students at Texas A&M University, and a current member of the Board of the Texas A&M Foundation. Ms. Gibson is Membership and Strategy Chair on the Board of the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations and serves on the Boards of the SMU Tate Lecture Series and the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas. She is a member of the Advisory Boards of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance at UT Dallas and the DFW Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Program. Kathleen is a member of Charter 100, the International Women’s Forum – Dallas, Dallas Woman’s Club, Marianne Scruggs Garden Club, and the Junior League of Dallas.
She has been recognized in the Dallas Business Journal as a ‘Top 25 Industry Leader in Women in Business’, and by the Profiles in Diversity Journal in the 10th Annual Women Worth Watching edition. Kathleen is a recipient of Texas A&M’s Tyrus R. Timm Honor Registry Award, Women’s Legacy Award, and was honored to be selected as a 2014 Fish Camp Namesake. She serves on the Advisory Council for the Center for International Business Studies at Texas A&M and the Mays Business School Development Council. Her prior involvement in civic activities includes serving on the Dallas Regional Chamber Board and Executive Committee, and serving on the Boards of Children’s Medical Center, Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, The Dallas Opera, The Lamplighter School, Dallas Citizens Council, The City Club, and the Dallas 2012 Olympic Bid Committee.
Ms. Gibson earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M University, and attended school at SMU in Oxford and SMU in Russia. Kathleen and her husband, Robert, have two daughters, Catherine and Sarah.
John Kleinheinz
Founder, Kleinheinz Capital Partners, Inc.
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John Kleinheinz is the founder and president of Kleinheinz Capital Partners, Inc., the investment advisor for the Global Undervalued Securities Fund, a long-short equity and global-macro themed hedge fund which at its peak managed nearly $4 billion. Mr. Kleinheinz returned outside capital to investors in 2013 after a successful 20-year career. He continues to run the Global Undervalued Securities Fund, which is active in a variety of areas including Japan, US energy and technology markets and private equity.
After graduating from Stanford University in 1984 with a degree in Economics, Mr. Kleinheinz began his career as an investment banker, working in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions for Nomura Securities in Tokyo and Merrill Lynch in New York and London. Upon moving to Texas in 1993, Mr. Kleinheinz was a partner in an investment firm where he managed the Russia Value Fund, which was one of the earliest funds to invest in Russia and was formed at the inception of the Russian stock market following the voucher privatization program in 1994. The Russia Value Fund was backed by several prominent investors, including Sir John Templeton and Robert Strauss, the former U.S. Ambassador to Russia.
Mr. Kleinheinz is actively involved with his alma mater, serving as an advisory board member for the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences and on the board of SIEPR (Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.) Mr. Kleinheinz also serves as a lead investor and on the Board of Directors for Texas Central Partners (TCP), a private entity which is developing high-speed rail between Dallas and Houston using state-of-the-art Japanese Shinkansen N700 technology.
John and his wife Marsha (SMU ’83) reside in Fort Worth and are actively involved in a number of philanthropic activities directly and through the Kleinheinz Family Foundation.
Nicholas A. Merrick
President, Mt. Vernon Investments, LP
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Mr. Merrick is President of Mt. Vernon Investments LLC, an investment company with over $1 billion in assets principally controlled by Kenny Troutt (Owner of WinStar Farm). Prior to Mt. Vernon Investments, Mr. Merrick was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Telergy, Inc. Mr. Merrick served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Excel Communications up to its merger with Teleglobe, Inc. Prior to that, Mr. Merrick served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Telco Communications Group, Inc. Prior to joining Telco, Mr. Merrick was Vice President of Corporate Finance at the Robinson-Humphrey Company, Inc. in Atlanta, where he was responsible for private capital placements and served as Managing Director at R-H Capital Partners where he managed a $26.5 million equity fund.
Mr. Merrick received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Commerce from the University of Virginia and his MBA from Harvard University.
T. Boone Pickens
Founder and CEO, BP Capital
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T. Boone Pickens is one of the nation’s most successful businessmen, first building one of the nation’s largest independent oil companies, Mesa Petroleum, and later reinventing himself in his 70s as one of the most successful investment fund operators with BP Capital. In July 2008, Boone launched the Pickens Plan (www.PickensPlan.com), a $100 million grass-roots campaign aimed at reducing this country’s crippling addiction to OPEC oil.
Boone’s 2008 book, The First Billion is the Hardest, detailed what America must do to win back its energy independence. He is also aggressively pursuing a wide range of other energy sector business interests.
CNBC has dubbed him “Oracle of Oil” for his uncanny knack of predicting oil price movements. At a time in life when many businessmen are concentrating on the golf course and ship cruises, he remains a dynamic force in his industry, as evidenced by his fellow Dallas chief executives selecting him as DCEO magazine’s 2013 CEO of the Year. His many professional honors include membership in the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, the Texas Business Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. In 1998, the Oil & Gas Investor listed him as one of the “100 Most Influential People of the Petroleum Century.” During the span of his career, Pickens has given away more than $1 billion to philanthropic causes. He is among the most generous university benefactors of all time, having contributed more than $500 million to his alma mater, Oklahoma State University, divided evenly between academics and athletics.
If you want to follow Boone Pickens on Twitter, you can do so @boonepickens.
Michael F. Price
President of The Price Family Foundation, Inc.; Managing Member of MFP Investors LLC
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Michael F. Price earned his bachelor’s degree in 1973 from the University of Oklahoma. In 1999 the University of Oklahoma honored him with a Doctor of Humane Letters.
Michael F. Price was Chairman of the Board of Franklin Mutual Advisers and Franklin Mutual Series Fund. He had been associated with both entities and their predecessor organizations since 1975. At that time the adviser was known as Heine Securities Corp. and the fund was Mutual Shares Fund. Michael was Vice President of the fund from 1975 until 1986. From 1986 until November 1, 1998 he was CEO, President and Chairman of the Board of the adviser and the fund, which came to be known as Mutual Series Fund.
Presently, Michael is the President of The Price Family Foundation, Inc.; Managing Member of MFP Investors LLC; and Managing Partner of MFP Partners, L.P. He also serves as a Director of Liquidnet Holdings, an Investment Advisory Council Member to the Florida State Board of Administration and on Boards for The Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Jazz at Lincoln Center and Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.
Caroline Ritter
Co-Portfolio Manager, Lyrical Asset Management
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Caroline Ritter joined Lyrical in November 2010 as Senior Research Analyst and Associate Portfolio Manager. Ms. Ritter served as a Portfolio Manager at Pilot Advisors from April 2008 to April 2009 and as a Portfolio Manager at Equinox Capital Management from February 2006 to January 2008. She had previously worked as an equity analyst at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Pzena Investment Management, and PIMCO Equity Advisors/Oppenheimer Capital. Ms. Ritter graduated summa cum laude from the Honors College at SUNY Stony Brook with a B.S. in Applied Mathematics & Statistics and Economics.
Thomas A. Russo
Managing Member, Gardner Russo & Gardner, LLC
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Thomas A. Russo joined Gardner Russo & Gardner LLC as a partner in 1989. In 2014 he became the Managing Member of the firm. Mr. Russo manages individual separate accounts and serves as the Managing Member of the General Partner to Semper Vic partnerships. Mr. Russo oversees more than $9 billion through separately managed accounts and Semper Vic partnerships. Gardner Russo & Gardner LLC is a registered investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and is not associated with any bank, security dealer or other third party.
Mr. Russo looks for companies with strong cash-flow characteristics, where large amounts of “free” cash flow are generated. (These industries typically have included food, beverage, tobacco, and advertising-supported media.) Portfolio companies tend to have strong balance sheets and a history of producing high rates of return on their assets. The challenge comes in finding these obviously desirable situations at reasonable or bargain prices.
Mr. Russo commits capital to leading global consumer products companies whose brands enjoy growing market shares in parts of the world undergoing economic growth and enjoying increasing political stability. He prefers companies with sufficient cash flows from existing operations, combined with balance-sheet strength, to allow investments to activate emerging markets. He backs rare management teams willing to invest to secure robust future returns even when such investments burden current reported profits. Mr. Russo believes that family-controlled companies are often uniquely well positioned to bear burdens on reported profits in pursuit of long-term gains. Accordingly, he often invests in public companies where founding families still retain control and significant investment exposure, to reduce management agency costs and to align owner interests.
Mr. Russo’s goal is one of an absolute return rather than a relative return, and he continues his long-term investment objective of compounding assets between 10 and 20 percent per year without great turnover, thereby realizing a minimum amount of realized gains and net investment income.
Thomas Russo is the Managing Member of the General Partner of Semper Vic Partners, L.P., and Semper Vic Partners (QP), L.P., limited partnerships whose combined investments are roughly $3 billion, along with overseeing substantially more funds through separate accounts for individuals, trusts, and endowments. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College (BA, 1977), and Stanford Business and Law Schools (JD/MBA, 1984). Memberships include Dean’s Advisory Council for Stanford Law School, Dartmouth College’s President’s Leadership Council, and California Bar Association. Mr. Russo is a charter member of the Advisory Board for the Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing at Columbia Business School. He serves on the boards of the Winston Churchill Foundation of the U.S., Facing History and Ourselves, and Storm King Art Center.
Gretchen Morgenson (Moderator)
Assistant Business and Financial Editor, The New York Times
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Ms. Morgenson has been Assistant Business and Financial Editor and a Columnist at The New York Times since 1998. She covers the world financial markets and won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for her “trenchant and incisive” coverage of Wall Street. In 2009, Ms. Morgenson won a Gerald Loeb Award in the “Beat Writing” category in her coverage of Wall Street. This followed her Gerald Loeb Award for excellence in financial commentary in 2002 and the American University School of Communication’s Annual Journalism Award for excellence in personal finance reporting in 2000.
Ms. Morgenson began her career at Vogue magazine as an Assistant Editor in 1976. By the time she left the magazine in 1981, she was a writer and financial columnist. She has filled the roles of Assistant Managing Editor and Investigative Business Writer and Editor at Forbes magazine, Press Secretary for the Forbes for President Campaign, Executive Editor for Worth magazine, Staff Writer at Money magazine, and Stockbroker for Dean Witter Reynolds in New York from 1981 to 1984. Ms. Morgenson received a B.A. degree in English and History from Saint Olaf College. She is co-author of The New York Times bestseller Reckless Endangerment, published by Times Books in May 2011.
Prices
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$100,000 Angel Investor
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$50,000 Breakout Investor
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$25,000 Perfect Hedge
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$15,000 Lead Investor
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$10,000 Value Investor
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$6,000 Friends & Family
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$1,000 Professional
Donor Information must be submitted by September 15, 2018. to receive an Underwriter Party invitation and ensure program listing.
Attendee Information must be submitted by September 22, 2018 to ensure printed name tags for attendees.
Attendee Information must be submitted by September 22, 2018 to ensure printed name tags for attendees.
"John Neill is doing extraordinary things. He is committing his time, money, and expertise to assure that children receive educational opportunities. Because of John’s work, lives of youth are forever changed by being the first in their families to attend college."
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