AIMR and the National Investor Relations Institute today said they would form a joint task force to establish guidelines to improve communication between corporations and investment analysts. In addition, the Association for Investment Management and Research urged that more investment professionals be added to the boards of top global public companies. Only one in 10 directors are fund or money managers.
Separately, more than half of AIMR members surveyed comply with its voluntary guidelines on soft-dollar arrangements. Of the 6,883 members surveyed, 58% said their firms comply, up from 48% in a similar survey conducted four years ago. Another 4% said they plan to comply, up from 3% in 1999. Another 6% said their firms don’t plan to comply with the standards, up from 4% four years ago, and 32% said they didn’t know about their firm’s compliance, down from 44%.
Also today, Ted Aronson, managing partner of Aronson + Johnson + Ortiz, was elected incoming AIMR chairman. Monique Gravel, vice president of CIBC World Markets, was elected incoming vice chair. Their one-year terms will begin Sept. 1.
Charles Ellis, founder and senior adviser at Greenwich Associates, was given AIMR’s award for professional excellence. In addition, Robert Merton, the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard Business School and the 1997 Nobel Laureate in economics, was presented with the Nicholas Molodovsky Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Investment Profession.