16th Annual Wharton Investment Management Conference

Richard Pzena

Founder and Co-Chief Investment Officer
Pzena Investment Management

Mr. Pzena is the Founder and Co-Chief Investment Officer at Pzena Investment Management. He is the architect of the firm’s investment strategy and conceived and developed the firm’s proprietary screening model. He serves as co-portfolio manager on each of the firm’s domestic investment strategies and is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Prior to forming Pzena Investment Management in 1995, Mr. Pzena was the Director of U.S. Equity Investments and Chief Research Officer for Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. He joined Bernstein in 1986 as an oil industry analyst and was named to the Institutional Investor All America Research Team from 1988-1990. During 1990 and 1991, Mr. Pzena served as Chief Investment Officer, Small Cap Equities, and assumed his broader domestic equity role in 1991. Prior to joining Bernstein, Mr. Pzena worked for the Amoco Corporation in various financial and planning roles. He earned a BS summa cum laude and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1979 and 1980, respectively.

Ashish Kishore

Partner
Manikay Partners

Ashish Kishore a Partner of Manikay Partners and is a senior member of the investment team focused on credit, high-yield and distressed opportunities. Prior to joining Manikay Partners at its launch in August 2008, Mr. Kishore was at Whippoorwill Associates, Inc. from 2006 to 2008, where he was a Senior Analyst and part of the portfolio management team. In this position, Mr. Kishore focused on distressed and high yield credit situations, along with capital structure arbitrage and deep value/special situation equities. Prior to joining Whippoorwill, Mr. Kishore was an Executive Director in the UBS Fundamental Investment Group from 2002 to 2005, where he focused on distressed credit, high yield, and convertible and capital structure arbitrage. From 1997 to 2002, Mr. Kishore was a Senior Vice President and research analyst at CRT Capital LLC, a boutique investment bank focusing on distressed credit and high yield convertible bonds. From 1996 to 1997, Mr. Kishore was an Associate at Mars & Company, a strategy consulting firm. From 1991 to 1994, Mr. Kishore was Senior Systems Consultant at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture Ltd.). Mr. Kishore received an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in 1996. Mr. Kishore also has a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the Moore School at the University of Pennsylvania, both received in 1991.

Ali Namvar

Partner
Pershing Square Capital Management

Ali Namvar is a Partner at Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P. and a senior member of the investment team. At Pershing Square, Ali primarily focuses on new idea generation, investment team talent development, and engagement with portfolio companies. As one of the early members of the investment team, Ali has played a substantial role in many of Pershing Square’s successful activist and passive investments over the firm’s history, including Fortune Brands, Beam, Kraft Foods, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Procter & Gamble, among others.

Prior to joining Pershing Square in January 2006, Ali worked at the Blackstone Group and Goldman Sachs. Before pursuing a career in investing, Ali was a New York City-based songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and music producer. Ali graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School.