Fall 2021 Member Newsletter

Society news & updates

Fall 2021 | Volume 1 | Issue 3

Letter to Membership from New Board President

Dear Society Members,

The past two years have been difficult for our ordinarily highly engaged society. Normally packed lunch meetings were reduced to a few members tuning in to a Zoom call, scholarship awards turned into congratulatory emails and our world-class Forecast Dinner was scrapped. As we come back together, we plan to continue successful collaborations with other societies, reinvigorate our university relations, get back to in-person lunches and host our best Forecast Dinner yet!

Since our founding, our society has had a strong focus on raising the next generation of Charterholders. Our founding President, Dr. Walter Neely, is responsible for inspiring a huge portion of our membership through his classroom at Millsaps. We have always supported finance and economics education in the classroom, most recently through our partnership with the Mississippi Council on Economic Education. Our series of scholarships introduce students

to all aspects of finance at our annual Forecast Dinner. In this term, we will continue our focus on the next generation with more support for Research Challenge participation, exposure to charterholders in the classroom, and growing our highly successful Ethics Challenge.

If you want to help us help your alma mater, do reach out - we need your passion, connections, and time!

Under our previous president, Thomas Arthur, our society expanded collaborations with other societies in the southeast. We contributed to the first southeastern societies conference in Atlanta, supported the region’s first joint speaker tour, and collaborated on numerous high-quality virtual events. Our society has always punched above our weight in delivering value to our own members and will continue to serve and inspire beyond our state in the future.

Ultimately though, we are your CFA Society. Our mission only exists with your participation as long as it aligns with your needs and desires. When raising the next generation of charterholders - we will need your help reaching students for mentorships and events. When raising the profile of the charter, we will need your advocacy to employers and community leaders. Your society has resources to support you, but we need your ideas and involvement. Do not hesitate to reach out with ideas or ways you would like to participate in the growth of our society and the strengthening of our profession.

Regards,

Ryder Taff, CFA, CIPM

President, CFA Society Mississippi

Meet Our Newest Society Members

Austin Mills, CFA

Investment Analyst,

Argent Advisors

Austin lives in Monroe, Louisiana, and has worked as an investment analyst at Argent Advisors since 2018. Argent Advisors is a subsidiary of Argent Financial Group (Argent), a leading, independent, fiduciary wealth management firm. Responsible for more than $35 billion in client assets and providing individuals, families, businesses, and institutions with a broad range of wealth management services, including trusts and estate planning, investment management, ESOPs, retirement plan administration and consulting, funeral and cemetery trusts, charitable organization administration, oil and gas (mineral) management and other unique financial services. Austin is a graduate of the University of Louisiana (Monroe) with a degree in finance. He started his CFA journey immediately after graduation.

Thaddeus Welch, CFA

V.P. Portfolio Manager,

St. Germain Investments

Thadd recently moved to the Jackson area (Madison), his wife’s hometown, from Western Massachusetts with their four daughters. He plans to secure an office for his company, St. Germain Investments out of Springfield, MA. Thadd is responsible for managing the equity portfolio and performing due diligence and fundamental analysis on their individual stock investments, while also working directly with clients to achieve their long-term financial goals. Thadd graduated from Bowdoin College with a BA in economics and started his career at a family firm in Portland, ME, before returning to his hometown in Massachusetts to work as a Research Analyst at Berkshire Bank. He joined St. Germain over six years ago and helped establish a new branch office, branded as October Mountain Financial Advisors.

CFA Society Member Spotlight

Marsha James, CFA, MBA,

PhD (Finance)

Associate Professor,

Belhaven University

Marsha James, of Jackson, is an associate professor at Belhaven University. She teaches a variety of finance-based courses such as financial management, policy and strategy, investments, financial institutions and markets, intermediate finance, personal finance and wealth management in the undergraduate business. Marsha has a passion for teaching and instilling a deeper understanding and knowledge of the business environment to her students so that they will initiate or continue the process of advancing in their careers. Mentoring her students is a high priority for her as an educator.

Read on for more information about Marsha in her answers to our Member Spotlight questions.

Other Society News and Updates

Volunteers Needed

As stated by our Board President, Ryder Taff, in his letter above, our mission "to advance the investment and financial communities through education, professionalism, and ethics" only exists through the service of our membership. For this reason, we are seeking your ideas, passions, time, and involvement as we plan to build upon our focus on the next generation of CFA charterholders and raise the profile of the charter through:

Growing support for and participation in our Local CFAI Research Challenges
Educating potential charterholders through exposure in the classroom
Increasing member involvement in our Ethics Challenges

If interested in volunteering, please reach out to us by clicking the button below and sending us an email!

Tell me more about volunteering opportunities.