About The Contributors

ValueWalk.com (the “Site”) is a web site owned by VALUEWALK LLC, a New Jersey limited liability  corporation.

All content related issues should be sent to jacob(at)valuewalk.com or sraza(at)valuewalk.com

Jacob Wolinsky:

founder, and CEO of ValueWalk.com.

I have prior experience in a value based pe firm focused on PIPE transactions in micro-cap companies, and at a value based research firm, which focused on smid caps. In my personal portfolio I have outperformed the market by a cumulative ~48% from 3/2008 (inception date) through July 31st 2011. I also do marketing/business development/PR on an ad-hoc basis for asset managers.

I can be contacted at:
jacob(at)valuewalk.com

Sheeraz Raza:

Sheeraz is in charge of curation and editing of ValueWalk. He is main reason behind the rapid growth of the site. Sheeraz runs a Taxation firm based in Karachi, Pakistan. Sheeraz is also an expert in tech, and is part of a very popular blog - Geekword.

Sheeraz can be reached at:

Email: sraza(at)valuewalk.com

Twitter’s username: SheerazRaza

Megan Paul:

Graduated with a BS in Finance from Amherst University. She currently works as a sell-side analyst at Credit Suisse. She would one day like to start her own value firm.  She works a lot on search media optimization for the site (SMO). Megan got into value investing when she read Snowball (the biography of Warren Buffett) by Alice Schroeder when it was released in 2008. It got her very interested in Buffett and his investment style. It also lead her to Buffett’s early colleagues like Walter Schloss, and Benjamin Graham and their investment style.

SMO(at)valuewalk.com

Crystal:

Crystal is in charge of all marketing/advertisements related issues for ValueWalk. She lives in Houston, Texas with her husband. Crystal can be reached at advertising(at)valuewalk.com. Her blog is Budgeting in the Fun Stuff

Neal:

Neal is in charge of IT and tech issues.

IT(at)valuewalk.com

Regular Contributors:

Elie Rosenberg:

Elie is a value investor based out of Dallas, Texas. He is the founder and editor of valueslant.com, a site dedicated to value investing research and analysis.

elie@valueslant.com

Faiza Naz:

Faiza Naz has seven years of equity research and broking experience. She has conducted multiple primary and secondary researches to identify Pakistan Financial Market issues.

faizanazimran@gmail.com

Frank Voisin:

At twenty years old, Frank opened the first of what would eventually become four successful restaurants while completing concurrent undergraduatedegrees. He later sold these businesses and returned to school to complete concurrent JD and MBA degrees. During this time, he wrote and passed thethree CFA exams. Frank takes a value perspective in his commercial real estate endeavours, hunting for unloved and undervalued investment opportunities to add to his investment group’s portfolio.

Frank has traveled extensively and lived in Auckland, London, Toronto, and is currently living in Hong Kong with his wife, Danielle, a successful entrepreneur, MBA, author, blogger and international manager for one of the largest global financial institutions.

Frank splits his time between consulting and searching for new value investments.

frank@frankvoisin.com

Kenneth Oster:

Kenneth Oster is a 23 year veteran of the United States Air Force. Kenneth has a MBA from Western Governors University, and is serving as a substitute teacher in Weld County, CO.  He has written many small business articles published in the Houston Chronicle’s online newspaper, Chron.com. His book, ” The Complete Guide to Preserving Meat, Fish, and Game: Step-by-step Instructions to Freezing, Canning, Curing, and Smoking ” was published by Atlantic Publishing Company in April 2010. Kenneth is presently working on a Doctor of Business degree from Northcentral University.

kennethvoster@yahoo.com

Kim Palacios:

Kim Palacios is a San Francisco transplant with 10+ years experience as a top contributor to executive teams in the Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Entertainment industries. She received her M.B.A. from the University of Chicago in 2005, where she concentrated in Finance, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship, and was the Robert W. Fogel Distinguished Fellow. She began blogging in 2009, after a lifetime infatuation with writing–between her personal outlets (Examiner.com) and professional blogging and ghostwriting engagements, her writing has been syndicated on dozens of sites, including The Huffington Post.

She is quadrilingual, a studying Sommelier, and an epicurean zealot. While not mourning the death of free markets and the tax treatment of Californians, she enjoys film.

kim@luxeconsulting.com

Margin of Safety Equity Research:

Margin of Safety Equity Research is a value-investing focused company providing equity research services, the Securities Analysis System investment software, stock valuation models, and other financial resources for value investors. Members of our subscription services have access to the Margin of Safety value-oriented portfolio and discounted access to our software.

research@marginofsafetyportfolio.com

Todd Sullivan:

Todd Sullivan is a Massachusetts-based value investor and a General Partner in Rand Strategic Partners. He looks for investments he believes are selling for a discount to their intrinsic value given their current situation and future prospects. He holds them until that value is realized or the fundamentals change in a way that no longer support his thesis.

todd@randsv.com

Vitaly Katsenelson CFA

I was born and raised in Murmansk, Russia (the home for Russia’s northern navy fleet, think Tom Clancy’s Red October). I immigrated to the US from Russia in 1991 with all my family – my three brothers, my father, and my stepmother. (Here is a link to a more detailed story of how my family emigrated from Russia.)
My professional career is easily described in one sentence: I invest, I educate, I write, and I could not dream of doing anything else. Here is a slightly more detailed curriculum vitae:
I am Chief Investment Officer at Investment Management Associates, Inc (IMA), a value investment firm based in Denver, Colorado. After I received my graduate and undergraduate degrees in finance (cum laude, but who cares) from the University of Colorado at Denver, and finished my CFA designation (three years of my life that are a vague recollection at this point), I wanted to keep learning. I figured the best way to learn is to teach. At first I taught an undergraduate class at the University of Colorado at Denver and later a graduate investment class at the same university that I designed based on my day job. Currently I am on sabbatical from teaching for a while.
I found that the university classroom was not big enough for me, so I started writing and, let’s be honest, I needed to let my genetically embedded Russian sarcasm out. I’ve written articles for the Financial Times, Barron’s, BusinessWeek, Christian Science Monitor, New York Post, Institutional Investor … and the list goes on.
I was profiled in Barron’s, and have been interviewed by Value Investor Insight, Welling@Weeden, BusinessWeek, BNN, CNBC, and countless radio shows.
Finally, my biggest achievement – well actually second biggest; I count quitting smoking in 1992 as the biggest – I’ve authored the Little Book of Sideways Markets (Wiley, 2010) and Active Value Investing (Wiley, 2007).

Vitaliy@katsenelson.com

Pakonomy:

Pakonomy is the first site devoted to everything about the Pakistan’s economy. Run by people working in the financial industry. Pakonomy is a unique blend of articles about the Pakistan’s stock market, what the big asset managers are doing, and more from a value based perspective. The site is run with a value oriented focus. Pakistan has the 6th largest economy in the world, yet few people know much about the economy and markets.

pakonomy@gmail.com

Greg Speicher:

Greg is a private investor who has been investing, studying and writing about the the markets since 2006. Greg built several successful offline businesses including an Inc. 500 Company which he co-founded. Buffett stated, “I am a better investor because I am a businessman.” It is in that spirit that Greg brings his years of business experience to investing.  Greg received his B.A. in philosophy Magna Cum Laude from the University of St. Thomas in Rome, Italy, and attended the MBA Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also studied with Bruce Greenwald at the Value Investing Executive Education Course at Columbia University.

greg-speicher@gregspeicher.com

HardcoreValue:

Canadian value investor, working in PWM. Passed all three levels of CFA.

hardcorevalue@gmail.com

hardcorevalue@gmail.com

David Merkel:

David J. Merkel, CFA, FSA — 2010-present, I am working on setting up my own equity asset management shop, tentatively called Aleph Investments. It is possible that I might do a joint venture with someone else if we can do more together than separately.

From 2008-2010, I was the Chief Economist and Director of Research of Finacorp Securities. I did a many things for Finacorp, mainly research and analysis on a wide variety of fixed income and equity securities, and trading strategies.

Until 2007, I was a senior investment analyst at Hovde Capital, responsible for analysis and valuation of investment opportunities for the FIP funds, particularly of companies in the insurance industry. I also managed the internal profit sharing and charitable endowment monies of the firm.

From 2003-2007, I was a leading commentator at the investment website RealMoney.com. Back in 2003, after several years of correspondence, James Cramer invited me to write for the site, and I wrote for RealMoney on equity and bond portfolio management, macroeconomics, derivatives, quantitative strategies, insurance issues, corporate governance, etc. My specialty is looking at the interlinkages in the markets in order to understand individual markets better. I no longer contribute to RealMoney; I scaled it back because my work duties have gotten larger, and I began this blog to develop a distinct voice with a wider distribution. After three-plus year of operation, I believe I have achieved that.

Prior to joining Hovde in 2003, I managed corporate bonds for Dwight Asset Management. In 1998, I joined the Mount Washington Investment Group as the Mortgage Bond and Asset Liability manager after working with Provident Mutual, AIG and Pacific Standard Life.

My background as a life actuary has given me a different perspective on investing. How do you earn money without taking undue risk? How do you convey ideas about investing while showing a proper level of uncertainty on the likelihood of success? How do the various markets fit together, telling us us a broader story than any single piece? These are the themes that I will deal with in this blog.

I hold bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins University. In my spare time, I take care of our eight children with my wonderful wife Ruth.

david.merkel@gmail.com

DavidSchawel CFA:

Currently work as a fixed income portfolio manager. Spent time in NYC in both investment banking and equity research. Current CFA charterholder.

dschawel@gmail.com

Chad Sandstedt:

Prior to joining West Partners, Chad founded FetchXL, a provider of financial data and analytical solutions. Previous to that, Chad was an Associate at McCarthy Capital Corporation where he was involved in making investments in middle-market companies. He previously worked as an Analyst in the development group of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company. Chad is a CFA charterholder and a graduate of the University of Nebraska – Omaha with a B.S.B.A. in Finance. He serves as a Director of West Partners.

chads@fetchxl.com

Andrew Shapiro:

Andrew Shapiro is Founder, President and Portfolio Manager of Lawndale Capital Management, an investment advisor that has managed activist hedge funds focused on small- and micro-cap companies for over 18 years. Mr. Shapiro’s proactive ownership approach has been effective in directly creating and unlocking shareholder value in Lawndale’s portfolio companies and has contributed to Lawndale’s activist funds often being ranked among the top event-driven and small-cap value funds in peer databases for long-term performance. In addition to leading Lawndale, Mr. Shapiro has also served as a Director or Observer on portfolio company boards and debt and equity bankruptcy committees. Mr. Shapiro is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and Lawndale has been a long-time Sustaining Member of the Council of Institutional Investors (CII).

Mr. Shapiro has more than two decades of portfolio management and analytically varied experience from a number of “buy-side” positions, employing a rare combination of credit, legal and equity analytic and workout skills. Prior to founding the Lawndale organization in 1992, Mr. Shapiro managed the workout and restructuring of large portfolios of high-yield bonds, distressed equities and risk arbitrage securities for the Belzberg family’s entity, First City Capital. Before joining First City, Mr. Shapiro was involved in numerous highly leveraged corporate acquisition and recapitalization transactions for both Manufacturers Hanover Trust and the Spectrum Group, a private equity firm.

Mr. Shapiro received his JD degree from the UCLA School of Law where he was an Olin Fellow, an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management where he was a Venture Capital Fellow and a BS in Business Administration from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he has taught finance courses and frequently guest lectures. Mr. Shapiro is often quoted on matters of corporate governance, fiduciary duty and activist investing and has been the subject of several articles, including a Business Week article in 2000 calling him “The Gary Cooper of Governance”. He is also a frequent speaker on corporate governance and activist investing issues at a broad range of prestigious forums that include the Council of Institutional Investors, National Association of Corporate Directors, American Society of Corporate Secretaries, SEC Advisory Committee on Small Public Companies, and the Director’s education programs of Stanford Law School, UCLA Anderson Grad. School of Mgmt., the Wisconsin Business School and Yale’s Millstein Center for Corporate Governance, among others.

Mr. Shapiro started Lawndale’s funds in 1993 with only $188,000 under management and through performance and added capital has grown the firm’s managed assets substantially. In many of its investments, the firm plays a constructive relational role by actively working with Boards and management teams to help them achieve their strategic and operating goals. In other investments, Lawndale is a direct value-unlocking catalyst, utilizing a range of tools that include aggressively promoting improvements in a company’s governance and operational structures, asserting shareowner’s legal rights and taking active roles in restructuring and buyout proposal negotiations.

Email: aeshapiro@lawndalecap.com

Street of Walls:

Every market morning the Street of Walls team puts out an update on market levels on Value Walk

We are a community of investment banking, hedge fund, and private equity professionals. Our mission is to help you get a job on Wall Street. This isn’t about entertainment value; it’s about taking a serious approach to landing the job of your dreams. We level the playing field for all applicants whether you are connected or not. The exciting part is our process to getting in is learnable, and we provide the tools to help you get there.”

Ryan O’Connor of Above Average Odds: I am a managing partner and co-portfolio manager at Whetstone Capital Management. Whetstone is a Kansas City based, value-centric investment management firm that provides portfolio management services to like-minded individual investors and institutions through a private investment partnership, and the AAOI Partners Fund.

Ryan writes in depth value articles.

Email above-average-odds@www.aboveaverageodds.com

Ben Strubel is a regular contributor to the site.

Ben is a graduate of Drexel University with a Master of Business Administration in Investment Management. He is the President and Portfolio Manager of Strubel Investment Management, LLC a registered investment advisor based in Lancaster, PA. Strubel Investment Management provides separate account management services to clients and also publishes The Value Investor’s Edge Newsletter.

Rob Bennett- Writes a weekly column
Rob developed the the Valuation-Informed Indexing investing strategy..
a strategy that combines the most powerful insights of Vanguard Founder John Bogle and Yale Professor Robert Shiller in a simple approach offering higher returns at greatly diminished risk.

Michael Harr, founder of Walden Advisors, has described Valuation-Informed Indexingas “a very solid approach to investing.” Bill Schultheis, author of The New Coffeehouse Portfolio, exclaimed upon discovery of the investing materials available at Rob’s www.PassionSaving.com:”Holy Toledo! This is great stuff!” Carl Richards, owner of Clearwater Asset Management, wrote:
I have read everything I can about Valuation-Informed Indexing, and I agree with you that Buy-and-Hold is extremely problematic…. I think what you are doing has huge value.”

A full bio of Rob is here. He today writes two weekly columns on investing: (1) “Valuation-Informed Indexing”, which appears on Tuesdays on Value Walk
here.) and; (2) “Investing: The New Rules”, at the Death by 1,000 Papercuts Site, available here. You can e-mail Rob at: hocusreports@verizon.net.

Tim du Toit is editor and founder of Eurosharelab. On his website he reveals what more than 20 years of equity investment have taught him – sometimes at considerable cost. To discover how you can avoid costly mistakes and enjoy greater profits, sign up for his free newsletter “Investing that makes sense” at www.eurosharelab.com

Duncan MacInnes is a regular contributor to the site, his blog is-kelpie-capital

Duncan works for a large Wealth Manager in the UK, the views expressed on this blog are entirely his own and do not reflect the views of his employer or investment advice. He is a 26 years old Portfolio Manager who discovered investing after completing Law School. Since then, he has added the Investment Management Certificate and completed all three levels of the CFA. In 2012, he will study for The Practical History of Financial Markets at Edinburgh Business School. He has worked in London, Singapore, Edinburgh and currently in Glasgow, UK.

Charles (Chuck) C. Carnevale  is a regular contributor to the site. Chuck is the– Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of http://edmpinc.org, has been working in the securities industry since 1970.  He has been a partner with a private NYSE member firm, the President of a NASD firm, and a Vice President, Regional Marketing Director for a major American Stock Exchange listed company, and he was an Associate Vice President and Investment Consulting Services Coordinator for a major NYSE member firm.  Prior to forming EDMP, Inc., he was a partner in a 30-year-old established registered investment advisory in Tampa, Florida.  Chuck holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Finance from the University of Tampa.  Chuck is a sought-after public speaker who is very passionate about spreading the critical message of prudence in money management.  Chuck is a Veteran of the Vietnam War and was awarded both the Bronze Star and the Vietnam Honor Medal.

pollyc@fastgraphs.com

Christine Song is a global value hedge fund manager, with a passion for finding undervalued and underfollowed high quality small cap companies in which to invest. ww.smallinvestinginsights.com

Did I know from a young age that I wanted to be a stock picker? No. Did my grandfather give me a share of IBM on my 5th birthday and plant the seed to be an investor? No again. However one thing my mother taught me, from a young age, was the concept of intrinsic value versus market price, though she called it something else: “things going on sale.” Ever the skeptic, I protested: “I can’t wait, I need it now, they’ll be sold out.” However, she always waited and sure enough, things inevitably went on sale. From early youth, I was wired to be a value buyer.

It wasn’t until years later did I discover my life’s work — one that would marry my innate curiosity with my value bent. With a pit stop at Cornell University, my alma mater, to get an MBA, I focused on small cap value investing. I was drawn to small cap investing because my father was a small business owner, and I saw firsthand how small decisions have a big impact on operations. Through hard work, research and analysis, I knew I could find undercovered and undervalued stocks that were changing for the better. I am thrilled by the challenge of figuring out how business models work — and more importantly, how they will work. I use my quantitative skills while feeding my intellectual curiosity and passion for stockpicking. Everything I read, see or hear has implications for my craft, and I can’t think of another profession that, on a daily basis, would be as challenging and fulfilling.

Christine can be contacted at csong@smallii.com

EconMatters, I’m a market analyst, and writer/editor a syndicated financial blog EconMatters.
More at About.Me, Email Me

AI is an investor in Indian Financial Markets.

He writes abour investing in India. His blog is http://www.investing-reflections.blogspot.com, email anonimus555@yahoo.com.