Calgary continues to emerge as Canada’s most dynamic financial centre. Accordingly, banks and financial firms tell us they need job-ready, confident students who are able to hit the ground running. The Mount Royal University Student Investment Fund (the “SIF”) answers this call by training a select group of accounting and finance students in the principles of modern investment finance. The SIF is a financial ecosystem where students get to experience the full array of roles that exist in the asset management world. SIF students participate in a professional milieu with the responsibilities that accompany the management of real money for a real client, the Mount Royal University Board of Governors.
Our SIF is modelled on the best student funds across Canada. Students work closely with a faculty advisor to assess industrial sectors and then individual equities within these sectors. Rigorous analytical work is performed and investment picks are defended in open debate with other members of the SIF team. The fund is truly managed by students alone; all trading decisions are based upon a majority vote of the group. All of this is possible due to the rigorous foundation of exciting finance and accounting courses offered at the Bissett School of Business.
A high priority is placed on ethical investment practices within the SIF. The group has adopted the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct as their guiding text in this regard. As well, the SIF endeavours to make a place for students from populations traditionally underrepresented in the capital markets, especially Indigenous students, women, and New Canadians. The SIF rests on a scaffolding of generous community support in the form of guest speakers, mentors, job placements and, of course, donors. Even so, the SIF is still a relatively new project for us, and we continue to rely on the generosity of Calgary and the wider community.
I am delighted to serve as the Chair of the Board of Advisors of the SIF. It is an exciting place to be: talented students, devoted faculty, and generous community partners. I congratulate the current team of students and I am pleased to offer my genuine support to all future classes of students who pass through the SIF.
Dr. Kelly Williams-Whitt
Dean, Bissett School of Business
Chair of the Board of Advisors of the Student Investment Fund
Mount Royal University
