Program History

1986

• Six students admitted to Class of 1987 as Fund Managers
• Six students admitted to Class of 1988 as Research Associates
• Initial contributions amount to $350,000

1987

• Admit twice as many students to the Class of 1989
• Members of the first graduating class are named “Leslie Wong Fellows”
• First corporate bond holding is a Finning International 13-year convertible bond

1988

• Portfolio doubles to over $600,000 as the fund avoids the crash of 1987
• First PMF internship in Asia: Mr. Peter Lee (LWF ’89) at Citicorp Investment Bank in Hong Kong
• First graduate placed at a New York employer: Ms. Jackie Hoffman-Zehner (LWF ’88) at Goldman, Sachs & Co.

1989

• President and Faculty Supervisors begin Toronto visits with friends of the PMF
• First provincial bond holding is the Quebec 11% of April 2009
• Standard set for height variance within the class: Rob Lowe towers over Ronna Chisholm by 1'3"

1990

• Admissions to the class of 1992 reduced back to the original size of 6 to 8
• PMF Operating Committee formed to oversee the Faculty Supervisors’ activities
• First use of market index puts in the portfolio to hedge election risk

1991

• First PMF internship in Europe: Mr. Ed Arden (LWF ’93) at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt

1992

• First non-Canadian stock in the PMF portfolio: Bristol-Myers
• First mortgage-backed security added to the PMF portfolio from Merrill Lynch

1993

• Portfolio exceeds $1 million for the first time
• PMF Faculty Supervisor and students first provide trading services to the charity game “Up the Down Market” in support of the Down Syndrome Research Foundation

1994

• Class of 1996 admitted with more females than males
• Phillip Morris stock in the portfolio sparks an ethics debate at the Client Committee

1995

• Global reach of PMF Alumni continues to expand as members of Class of 1995 take jobs in New York and London, with one eventually settling in Norway

1996

• First high-yield bond in the PMF portfolio is a Stelco issue
• PMF President and Faculty Supervisors begin annual New York visits with PMF friends
• PMF Student first invited to speak at the Vancouver CFA Forecast Dinner (Paul M. Martin, LWF ’97)

1997

• First foreign bond holding in the PMF: Mexico 7% June 2003 sovereign issue
• First PMF class with a marriage and children: David and Pennie (Shum) George now have two “pure-bred PMF” children

1998

• First appointment of alumni as Counselors: Mr. Jeff Clay (LWF ’88) and Ms. Tracey McVicar (LWF ’90)
• First PMF internship in San Francisco: Mr. Kristian Sawkins (LWF ’99) at Barclay’s Global Investors

1999

• Client Committee changes strategic asset allocation  from 10/40/50 to 0/30/70 cash, bonds and stock

2000

• First PMF internship in New York: Ms. Maili Wong (LWF ’01) at Merrill Lynch

2001

• PMF President and Faculty Supervisor begin visits to London friends of the PMF
• Number of Leslie Wong Fellows crosses 100

2002

• Portfolio diversification shows with equity holdings in materials, energy, technology, education, banking and wine-making

2003

• Unusually, two grads begin their careers in Vancouver, with BMO Capital Markets and Raymond James, with others in Montreal and New York

2004

• Second class with a PMF marriage: Matt and Rachel (Ng) Russell currently have two “pure-bred PMF” children

2005

• PMF portfolio first exceeds $3 million

2006

• TSX60 I-Units first used as a cash management tool

2007

• Class buys a satellite manufacturer, Com Dev, which proves to be a short-term holding as the stock immediately skyrockets and the Fund Managers sell out

2008

• First foreign exchange hedge installed on US$-pay bonds
• PMF portfolio experiences biggest annual dollar loss in history: –$1.012 million

2009

• PMF portfolio experiences biggest annual dollar gain in history: +$1.180 million

2010

• PMF portfolio first exceeds $4 million
• Members of the Class of 2010 organize as a group to support charity “Room to Read”

2011

• PMF moves into its new offices, still in the basement, but much roomier than the first 25 years!
• Mr. Milton K. Wong, PMF Co-Founder, passes away. Over 150 PMF students were fortunate to meet Mr. Wong and see his incredible foresight and amazing generosity. We will all sorely miss him.

2012

• The 25th graduating class from the PMF was the Class of 2011. We celebrated that anniversary with over 120 PMF alumni, students and friends gathered at the Vancouver Convention Centre West. Guests came from all over the world, including Australia!

2013

• The portfolio first exceeds $5 million.
• The Long-Distance Mentor program is initiated to match a current PMF student with a LWF located outside of Canada, to give the student a different perspective on global capital market events than they might get from their Local Counselor/Mentors.

2014

• The largest single donation to the PMF, $1 million, is received from a very good, long-term friend of the PMF; this gift pushes the fund past the $6 million level.
• Two Strategic Asset Allocation changes, culminating in February, change the 70% allocation to total equities from 60% Canadian and 10% US, to 35% Canadian and 35% US, reflecting the larger opportunity set of investments in the US, the integration of the two markets, and the increasing availability of US security data through sources like Bloomberg, Cap IQ and Datastream.

2015

• The portfolio first exceeds $8 million.
• The Sauder School of Business, which is the fund's beneficiary, now receives approximately $230,000/yr in financial support for teaching and research

2016

• The number of PMF graduates, called Leslie Wong Fellows, crosses 200, with grads located in Vancouver (30%), Toronto and New York (20% each), London and Hong Kong (5% each), as well as Calgary, Chicago, Newport Beach, San Francisco, Oslo, Sydney and more.

• Mr. Emil Khimji (LWF ’07) is added as a PMF Counselor. Emil becomes the sixth PMF alumnus, out of a total of 30 people since 1987, to be given the obligation of educating the PMF students.

2018

• PMF introduces an earlier and compressed interview schedule to accommodate accelerated internship recruiting schedules by many North American employers. PMF students now spend a full three years as a PMF student after successfully navigating a two-day interview process that includes a “super day” schedule.

2019

• The PMF Fund officially exceeds the $10 million mark for the first time.