Ben Cimon almost looks like a standard businessman, but he’s missing one thing.
“Unfortunately, I haven’t got a personal assistant yet,” he laughs.
The fourth-year bachelor of commerce student is the portfolio manager of The Fund @ Sprott, an investment management project out of Carleton’s business school that uses over $1 million of real money to practice real-world investment techniques.
Cimon is the only one in his family with a background in business, yet has worked his way up from the bottom rung of The Fund to running it as the portfolio manager.
As the leader of the extracurricular group, Cimon assesses the market, compiles a list of companies to invest in, and directs the team’s weekly meetings. He’s responsible for managing The Fund’s website, organizing events, and keeping in touch with Carleton alumni.
“A normal portfolio manager in real life isn’t doing all the stuff I’m doing right now,” Cimon says.
Despite working 20 hours per week and managing the stress of tight deadlines, Cimon says he’s passionate about being a part of The Fund.
“You get to learn all these cool connections in the global economy today,” he says.
For The Fund, globalization has caused gains and losses on their investment money. Take the 2010 BP oil spill, for example.
“We owned shares of Transocean [Ltd.] and then when the BP oil spill happened, they were one of the implicated parties in that. They lost a ton of value in a short period of time,” Cimon says.
“It’s those big events that happen that can cause big loss very quick, which you can’t really foresee coming,” he adds.
Despite some losses, Cimon says he thinks The Fund has done a good job of growing their investment.
The Fund started with $50,000 in November 2007. As of April 2011, The Fund grew their original investment by about 25 per cent, according to their website.
Also in April, the Sprott School of Business announced it would be investing an extra $1 million in The Fund, which received half of the investment that month. The Fund is set to get the other half of the investment in the winter.
In addition to managing The Fund’s money, Cimon also trades with his own money.
“That’s a little more high risk than what we’ve done on the investment fund,” Cimon says.
Cimon says he first heard of The Fund in a presentation from the portfolio manager in his second year. He had taken finance courses in high school and had always been interested in investments, so he decided to apply.
Although he’s comfortable with being a businessman now, it’s not what he has always wanted to do, he says.
“When I was five or six, I was pretty convinced I was going to be a hockey player. But the funny thing is I never played organized hockey,” he says.
Instead of hockey, Cimon spent his childhood weekends at the ski hill. His passion for skiing led him to take a year off between first and second year and move to Whistler, B.C.
“I was a ski bum for a year,” Cimon laughs. “It’s always tempting to go back to that.”
After a year in Whistler, Cimon traded his ski suit for a business suit, returning to Carleton to continue his bachelor of commerce.
“It was a pretty stark contrast going from that life to applying to the investment fund and getting on and being super busy for the next three years,” he says.
Taking a year off helped Cimon focus on school, he says.
“I did all my relaxing and partying in that year. I got it all out of my system,” Cimon says. He has made the dean’s list the past three years and plans to graduate this April.
This past summer, he worked in market research at Brookfield Asset Management Inc.
“I probably wouldn’t have been able to get [the position] if I hadn’t originally joined the investment fund two years ago,” Cimon says.
In return, he brought the skills and tactics he learned from interning back to The Fund.
“I think [Cimon] is becoming really proficient as to how the market works,” says Howard Nemiroff, The Fund’s developer and current faculty advisor.
In terms of a full-time job, Cimon says he’s not picky about where he works, but he may already have a client in Nemiroff.
Nemiroff says he would trust Cimon with his own finances, under one condition.
“If he goes on to get hired at a great firm,” Nemiroff says.
As for making time for skiing, Cimon says he hopes to find a balance between work and play.
“Maybe one day I’ll end up working somewhere close to a nice resort so I can ski on weekends."
