The Best Ideas Session – Lightning Round will feature three speakers who are all new to the conference stage, starting with Avery Sheffield.

Avery is a managing director, co-founder, CIO and senior portfolio manager of VantageRock, a long/short equity hedge fund within Rockefeller Asset Management. Prior to joining Rockefeller in 2020, she was a portfolio manager at MSD Capital, a private investment firm that manages the capital of Michael Dell and his family. Her value-oriented investment style is distinguished by low, but variable net exposure, short selling of single stocks, ESG integration including proprietary analysis, and ferreting out alpha from non-traditional research. Avery’s portfolio is generally concentrated in 20 to 40 names, with a focus on consumer and TMT industries, and within this she is able to back into the 30-year history of Rockefeller Asset Management’s ESG integration, including their ESG engagement team. Her varied background before completing a Wharton MBA as a Palmer scholar is proof positive that success in portfolio management is very often not a straight line. What will her presentation bring?

Following Avery, Aaron Stern will take the stage. Aaron is the chief investment officer and co-founder of Converium Capital, a multi-strategy opportunistic investment manager with offices in Montreal and New York. Prior to co-founding Converium, Aaron was a Partner at Fir Tree Partners, where he was responsible for distressed, special situations and event-driven investments globally. He employed his contrarian idea selection in new areas for the firm, including sovereign and municipal debt, emerging markets and engagement opportunities in Europe and Asia. Returning to Canada after spending 15 years in New York, Aaron and the team successfully launched Converium during the pandemic, which is just one indication of his desire to take the path less travelled. Similarly, Converium invests globally and across the capital structure with a focus on off-the-run distressed and event-driven opportunities. We expect to hear a unique contrarian idea when Aaron presents in support of Capitalize for Kids.

The final speaker from this session is Sean McNulty. Sean is principal and co-founder of XIB Financial Inc., a holding company for Toronto-based capital markets consulting and asset management businesses. Within XIB, the team made its investing mark early by taking advantage of the robust returns available from positions in the nascent industry of legalized cannabis. Prior to founding XIB, Sean worked at one of Canada’s most successful hedge funds, MM Asset Management (MMCAP), where he was part of a five-person team responsible for managing an event-driven investment portfolio. Sean has ensured that he invested back into the community by using his time, talent and money to support organizations that focus on kids, families and first responders, and we are delighted that the XIB team has chosen to support Capitalize for Kids.