Warren Stoddart on Leading One of Canada’s Largest Employee-Owned Asset Management Firms

Rosemont Roundtable: Exploring the Business of Investment Management

In this episode of the Global Investment Leaders podcast, Rosemont CEO Chas Burkhart is joined by Warren Stoddart, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group – one of the largest employee-owned firms in Canada. Warren has held this position for over 20 years, until 2021 as Co-Chief Executive Officer with Michael Freund, with whom he shared overall responsibility for the growth and development of the firm and its ongoing management.

Throughout their conversation, Stoddart and Burkhart discuss:

• How Connor, Clark & Lunn evolved to a $100 billion* global firm with multiple affiliates and a worldwide client base
• The affiliates that comprise Connor, Clark & Lunn, with revenue streams coming from public markets investment products, private markets, high net worth clients and returns on investments the firm makes as principal on its own balance sheet
• How Stoddart views the M&A environment and the firm’s criteria by which they judge potential acquisitions, starting with partnership potential and alignment first, before evaluating product and geography considerations
• The investment strategies Stoddart is closely watching, specifically including active specialty strategies such as international small cap and frontier markets, as investors become disenchanted with large-cap developed market public equities and fixed income
• Connor, Clark & Lunn’s ownership structure and succession planning approach that is built to ensure the success of future firm leadership as the business becomes more complex

According to Stoddart, as the firm grows, its people remain his primary focus – a key concept that has shaped the firm from the beginning. “The decision was made to organize the business around the idea that we would be successful if we got as good as we could at attracting and retaining talented individuals. Since that time, the mission of the business has been to provide for the self-actualization of the people who work within it. And we’re confident that if we do that, we’ll have a successful enterprise.”

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* Approximate AUM for Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group at time of recording