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Spotlight on AIM Alumni

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treywilkinson headshotTrey Wilkinson recalls how Ted Bauer lived the philosophy that we are put on this earth to produce and every day you should “get up and get after it, keep your mind and body engaged.” At a time when many people choose to retire, Trey points out that Ted was starting his own company. “Ted had the courage to build something that became a success and an inspiration,” says Trey.

In both his professional and personal life, Trey follows this same philosophy. In addition to starting his investment firm in 2011, Trey is very active in his community, particularly at the University of Houston where he currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the University of Houston Alumni Association Foundation.

It is through my alumni association with the Bauer College of Business and now the University of Houston Alumni Association that I am a part of Ted Bauer’s legacy.

Trey Wilkinson

“Mr. Bauer’s gift transformed the University, and it is an honor to volunteer at a place where Ted created his legacy. It is up to the alumni and current students to keep that legacy going. Ted was a visionary and an incredible person. You can see through his actions how important it was to do good,” says Trey.

As AIM employees personally witnessed, AIM was a valuable philanthropic partner. Employees saw what good deeds could do, and the positive change they could bring about.

Many AIM colleagues will recall that when Ted made the gift to the University, he became even more involved. “I believe Ted attended every commencement he could until he passed away. He spoke at the lecture series and met students. Certainly, Mike Cemo laid the ground work. Mike guided Ted to make a financial commitment to the University. The legend is that Ted made his gift without having set foot on the campus.

Our firm includes more than 400 University of Houston alumni. Look how they helped make AIM.

Mike Cemo

”That resonated with Ted. He changed the University, and we can never fully repay him,” remarks Trey.

Trey is also a member of the University of Houston’s Board of Visitors and the Houston Cougar Foundation, in addition to being President of the University of Houston Honors College Advisory Board. He is a past president of the C.T. Bauer College of Business Alumni Association (2006-2007).

Mentoring some students and his involvement in scholarships is something Trey values. “Education is so important,” he says. “The University is a pubic institution that is state-supported, not state-funded. We need to do more in the private sector to make ends meet,” he points out.

Trey has been in the investment business since 1996. As a portfolio manager, he managed over $200 million for high net-worth clients at U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management. He also spent seven years in the institutional channel for AIM Investments (from 1996 to 2003). His final position was Key Account Manager/Regional Sales Director. During his career, AIM helped pay for Trey’s MBA.

In 2009, Trey left U.S. Trust and began thinking about embarking on his own journey. He says, “I had an opportunity through my University of Houston connections to join a boutique firm. One of my clients there approached me to manage their family’s wealth. We founded Trinity Legacy Partners in November 2011 and we managed over $85 million for our clients at the end of 2015.” Trey gives credit to the AIM executives that he worked with for several years.

Every single day I try to emulate the culture and business practices that Ted, Bob and Gary instilled in us.

Trey Wilkinson

“I am certainly not saying Trinity Legacy Partners will become anything close to AIM but we can sure try,” says Trey. “I also follow the client-centric focus Mr. Bauer always talked about. This relates to both the people and the product – both the people you are working with, and your clients.”

trey rainbow

Golf was a passion of Ted Bauer’s, and Trey was privileged to play with him a couple of times while at AIM. Trey had a successful junior golf career and came to University of Houston on a golf and academic scholarship. He was drawn to the University, which had won 16 National Golf Championships. He is currently a member of Champions Golf Club in Houston, and also an active member of Royal Dornoch Golf Club in Scotland. Trey and his wife Kimberly travel to Scotland annually, and Trey plays every year in the Carnegie Shield, finishing runner-up in 2013. He had the distinction of being ‘the American’ who made it to the final round of the 100th staging of the Carnegie Shield Tournament at Royal Dornoch in Scotland. Tucked away north of Inverness, the course is the fifth-best in the world according to Golf Digest.

In 2013, The Scottish Golf View wrote: “A last place seed was beaten by American Visitor Trey Wilkinson from Houston, Texas who showed his pedigree by beating in the next round, the Holder John Forbes (Inverness) on his way to the final to meet former winner Chris Mailley.” While Trey fell short of taking the Shield across ‘the pond’, he was thrilled with his achievement.

Trey’s activities are many and varied, but whether he is distinguished as the top American golfer at the Royal Dornoch in Scotland, mentoring a University of Houston student, or working on behalf of his clients, he finds that ‘it is all intertwined”.

trey kilt

“When I started working at AIM and then Mr. Bauer made his gift, AIM was a rocket ship at the time. It was an exciting place to be, and I had the utmost respect for the people with whom I worked. My favorite memory of AIM is the relationships, the people and the friendships. I treasured the conversations with the portfolio managers, and respected the earnings driven strategy we managed for our clients. That earnings driven strategy is alive and well today at Trinity Legacy Partners,” shares Trey.

downloadJulian A. (Sonny) Lerner a pioneer of fund management, passed away at his home on Thursday March 10, 2016.

Julian will be remembered by many former AIM employees as the founder of the Charter Fund. Speaking about Julian, Bob Graham said it is important to note that the acquisition of the Charter Fund by AIM occurred about the same time as the Weingarten/Constellation funds.

These acquisitions transformed AIM into both a money market and retail firm. "This," recalls Bob, "was our entry into the retail business. We had a few small funds, but by acquiring these funds and keeping their managers who had produced great results we got into the adviser community, promoted these funds and built a name for AIM in the retail business."

Bob recalls that Julian was a key factor in building the business and he represented AIM well. 

It was a win-win situation because it was a tough market. Julian was selling directly and AIM provided the marketing muscle to build the assets in his fund.

Bob Graham 

Lanny Sachnowitz recalls what an honor it was to work for two legendary portfolio managers in Julian and Harry (Hutzler). “My colleagues and I had the chance to serve as understudies to two of the finest stock pickers in the business. I was fortunate to work closely with and ultimately succeed Julian on the Charter Fund, the fund I think he took the most pride in managing since its inception in 1968. A press article about Julian's retirement from managing the fund is available here.

I am sure that Julian would be proud to know that of all the funds AIM launched, acquired, merged or closed, the Invesco Charter Fund endures nearly 50 years on.

Lanny Sachnowitz

Lanny also recalls Julian’s sharp wit and wisdom that far exceeded what can be learned from any finance textbook. Julian was known for his sound intuition about the stock market and developed some simple, but powerful rules that served his shareholders well and made the "Charter story" quite compelling. “He was seriously competitive but never took himself too seriously,” found Lanny. “He was confident in his abilities but was always approachable and respectful of another point of view, especially when it came to delegating portfolio decisions to us young and ambitious "kids." He also had a great sense of humor and I remember accompanying him on a number of marketing trips around the country and admiring his ability to both educate and entertain his audience,” said Lanny.

Dick Berry knew Julian and Peggy and their family for 20 years before AIM acquired Charter and Dick began sharing offices with him. "We were both living in Dallas. I was doing tax-free mutual funds for AIM. It was a comfortable environment. Julian was a little eccentric at times, which made him interesting," recalls Dick.

Dick knew Julian served in WWII, but he had not known any specifics. One day at lunch, Julian was talking about General Patton, and how he was in the infantry walking with the tanks through France into Germany. Someone asked was he afraid? "Are you kidding? Julian replied. "I was walking through Nazi Germany. Of course I was afraid," Dick remembers Julian saying.

Dick echoed Lanny, sharing that Julian was very very competitive. He was a mall walker and he and his wife Peggy were religious about walking the Galleria Mall at about 7a.m. every day. He wanted to outperform everybody. In business, he wanted to outperform all the fund managers, not just those at AIM. He would calculate the funds daily. It was all very friendly and cordial.

If the measure of a life is a measure of love and respect, Julian measured up very well,” shares Lanny. “The enduring memory I have of Julian is that he was so kind and grateful for his family and friends, and for the business opportunities he had in his life.

Lanny Sachnowitz

Yet, despite all he accomplished, he never forgot where he came from,” said Lanny. As Jon Schoolar put it when Lanny shared with him the news of Julian's passing the other day, "he was the best of the best generation.”

Read Julian Lerner's obituary here.



hal barrSales guru Hal Barr turned author spent ten years at AIM from 1995 to 2005, with his final position as Director of Sales Strategy and Planning. "AIM was the highlight of my working career. It was a phenomenal place to work.  Ted Bauer, Bob Graham and Gary Crum drove a sense of community and family. I had not eperienced it before then and I have not experienced it after AIM. When the take over came thorugh it definitely changed the whole complexion of the company. And with the passing of Ted Bauer, the change was complete," reflects Hal.

Now Hal is focused on selling a book he authored. What I learned, shares Hal is that whether you sell widgets or financial services, "it is mostly psychology and art rather than science". Hal spent the last year and a half driving a limo, thereby giving him the down time to write his book. "It was humbling, but it gave me the time to complete a passion. Now I am working with that company to help them grow their business," shares Hal.

His sales knowledge and experience are shared in his book, The First Billion’s The Toughest which is available as a hard cover and an eBook on Kindle. Hal says of his publication:

It is the culmination of 30 years in the profession of sales and highlights the many insights and lessons learned. From first reader reviews , people found it insightful, interesting and valuable in raising their sales to a new level.

Hal Barr, Author

"I learned that you can really craft your skills after one billion. Being in the financial services industry, they come in at the tens and thousands. The book is there to circumvent the 15 years it took me to get the first billion. The second billion took me three years. It takes a lot of time to make the first billion," says Hal.

Read an excerpt from the book below:

"That is what sales is all about — it is making people feel comfortable with the decisions they make. If you would admit it, we are all engaged in wide varieties of activities that are in essence sales each day, be it trying to make a point during a board meeting in your workplace, or persuading our kids to heed our advice. Probably, the biggest sales proposition you will ever make is persuading someone to marry us; it is simply an attempt to sell something — love — to a person to whom you are attracted. I mean seriously, it does not get any bigger than that. To say we hate selling may be true, since we are all involved in selling each day of our lives, we could tell that understanding the Art, Science and Method of sales can help us become more successful in any endeavor we pursue."

Make an advance purchase at www.selling8020.com.  As ever, we are proud of the talented individuals of AIM and their great accomplishments.

Helping Hands

Jan 21 2016

With this article we are sharing an outstanding story about Mandy, the daughter of Ronnie Stein, a former AIM employee.

Mandy, after graduating from the University of Texas in May 2013, transformed her passion to make a difference into reality by creating Neema International, a non profit organization that’s primary focus is investing in the lives of East Africa’s promising youth through education and sustainable building projects.

stein big

From a very early age, Mandy knew she wanted to make a difference in the world. After an initial vacation to Kenya in 2007, Mandy had the opportunity to return to Africa the summer of 2011 (after her Sophomore year of college) for a five-week structured volunteer program called Cross Cultural Solutions. Mandy fell in love with Tanzania and it’s people and this was the beginning of a very special relationship with the Tuleeni Orphanage in the remote village of Rau, located in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania.

The Tuleeni Orphanage is home to nearly one hundred orphaned and/or vulnerable children. Through the support of hundreds upon hundreds of donors, Mandy and Neema International are sending over seventy-five children to private school this year, up 50% from each of the previous two years that Neema Int’l has been involved. This incredible support has also allowed Neema Int’l to build the brand new Tuleeni Orphans’ Home and Tuleeni Academy in it’s new location of Uru, another village in the shadows of Mt Kilimanjaro.

 

The momentum we are experiencing as we begin 2016 is phenomenal. So many of our AIM friends have become part of the Neema family, and the work and progress that is being done is happening even quicker than we could have ever expected.

Ronnie Stein on Neema International

Says Ronnie. “We are looking so forward to the grand opening this Spring and reaching even more children than before”.

The Tuleeni Orphanage was featured on CBS for the 26th annual Courage in Sports show, which had a huge spotlight on Mandy and her orphanage as part of their segment on another outstanding youth, Austin Gutwein, Founder of Hoops of Hope.

Read about Mandy’s work as Executive Director of Neema International and her dedicated work on behalf of the Tuleeni Orphanage on her website (www.NeemaInternational.org). Follow Neema International on Facebook and Instagram for an up to date look into the work of the organization.

salners

Do you believe you are just lucky or that you are just that good?

J-Vibe Online Magazine meets with the most fascinating people, and one theme that seems to come up in most conversations is that extremely successful, humble and intelligent people who have created change believe they have just been lucky. Jim Salners, an actor and one of the first 50 employees at AIM Management, believes that being lucky is due to persistence. We just think it’s because he’s that good.

Read the full story here.