C-Suite Unplugged: Craig Senyk, Chairman, Mawer Investment Management

Well, let's switch gears to more investment management.

And I know many people look at the name and think it's Mauer, but it's not.

It's Moore.

We'll start that right off the bat.

But tell us about Moore.

Talk a little bit about the history, but tell us about how big you are, where you operate, and what makes you distinctive in the investment landscape.

Yeah, well, it is more investment management.

So I like to say, think of more money for your portfolio.

And I did mispronounce it when Gerald did interview me at that first job.

So I was pretty convinced that I would never have a job at this firm.

But I just think, you know, I talked a little bit about Chuck.

The other thing to mention about Chuck is he started our firm in 1974.

So we're over 50 years old.

I don't think a lot of people recognize that.

He was 57 years old when he started our firm, when a lot of people were thinking about retirement.

And he was branch manager McLeod Young Weir at the time, which became Scotia McLeod and is now Scotia Well.

And when I asked him why at 57, in your right mind, if you think of leaving an organization to start your own firm.

And he said at the time he was never really comfortable with the inherent conflict of interest in the investment world where you charge clients a commission to trade their portfolio.

And he wanted to start a firm where he could charge clients a percentage of assets under management.

And he said you would then be incentivized to grow a client's portfolio as opposed to trade.

a client's portfolio.

So incredible vision.

That's fairly common today, but 50 years ago, talking about blazing a path, just like Gerald did when he joined us in the 80s to start managing international equities from us in Calgary.

So it makes us one of the oldest investment firms.

When I joined in the late 90s, we managed 700 million for primarily individual investors, high net worth individual investors in Western Canada.