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Kenneth Woods Portfolio Management 

Prestigious program celebrates 10 years of excellence

Kenneth Woods, MBA 75, has already had quite a year. The Vancouver businessman said highlights from the past few months included the Winter Olympic Games, celebrating the birth of his first grandchild and, on May 6, the 10th anniversary of the Kenneth Woods Portfolio Management Program (KWPMP) he helped establish.

“I’m overwhelmed. I hardly imagined 10 years ago when we began the program that it would succeed the way it has,” Woods told the 120 or so guests gathered at the Bonaventure Hilton in downtown Montreal to celebrate the KWPMP’s anniversary. The event also honoured its 2010 graduates — named Calvin Potter Fellows after the former John Molson School of Business (JMSB) Finance professor who was also Woods’ mentor.

Guests included current and graduating KWPMP students, alumni, employers, mentors and members of the KWPMP client committee, which is made up of a volunteer group of senior investment management professionals that advises the students on investments.

The program was launched in 2000 to provide a select group of undergraduate JMSB Finance students with hands-on training in investment management. The students work with a real portfolio of more than $1 million, the amount initially donated by Woods.

KWPMP Director Abraham Brodt said that he’s gained valuable experience as the program’s sole director the past decade. “I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Ken Woods, the members of the client committee and some of the best students not only at Concordia but in Canada and even the world,” said Brodt.

David Graham, Concordia Provost and VP, Academic Affairs, and Kathy Assayag, VP, Advancement and Alumni Relations, congratulated Woods for his vision and leadership, as well as the program’s outstanding students.

Tullio Cedraschi, retired president and CEO of the CN Investment Division and a former member of the KWPMP client committee, urged students to leverage their full potential and make a name for themselves as professionals. “What would it take to become the next Warren Buffett?” Cedraschi asked KWPMP students. “Why not? If he could do it from Omaha, you can do it from here. And you had Abraham Brodt!” he said, referring to Brodt’s exceptional teaching skills.

After Brodt and Woods handed certificates to the 10 Calvin Potter Fellows, graduating student Meaghen Annett delivered the valedictory address. “The program gave us an abundance of wealth, beyond the standard definition of wealth,” said Annett, who then thanked Woods, Brodt, the client committee, JMSB Dean Sanjay Sharma and others for making the program “formidable and incomparable.”