Morningstar Advisor - Fall 2007 - 8

Contributors Morningstar analysts are a worldly bunch. The company stations analysts around the globe and frequently sends U.S.-based analysts to foreign locales. We made use of this global presence to give advisors Morningstar’s latest thinking on the changing nature of international investing (Spotlight, page 26). For the photo, taken by Stephen Carrera, we took the Chicagobased contributors to one of the 124 “CoolGlobes”—a public art exhibit that dotted the Chicago lakefront this summer. From left are analysts Allan Nichols, Scott Burns, Mike Ford-Taggart, Dan Lefkovitz, Bridget Hughes, and Ryan McLean. Not pictured are Mark Weber (who’s based in London), Jonathan Schrader (who’s in Toronto), and Gregg Wolper. In the past year or so, these analysts have visited companies in China, Hong Kong, India, Australia, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and the U.K. in search of the best investing opportunities the world has to offer. Sonya Morris Fund analyst Sonya Morris covers ETFs for the magazine, including picking ETFs for Investments a la Carte (page 64) and contributing Sector Rap (page 78). She’s also editor of the monthly ETFInvestor newsletter. Morris sees a lot of confusion about ETFs. “There hasn’t been much in the way of thorough research that helps investors use ETFs intelligently,” she says. Morris aims to rectify that situation. She analyzes ETFs in a fundamental, valuebased way. “We prefer funds that are loaded with financially sound stocks that are trading at compelling valuations. And we’re willing to hold them for the long haul.” Philip Anderson In depicting this issue’s topic of a world with blurring economic borders, illustrator Philip Anderson tackled the biggest challenge first: the cover. “Once the big theme was resolved—a contemporary Pangea—the interior ideas invited more intimate and broad humor,” he says. Anderson has a lot of experience working with investment topics. He illustrates Ben Stein’s column for The New York Times, and his work has appeared in BusinessWeek, Fortune, and The Wall Street Journal. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York, Anderson works from home on the coast of Maine. Michael Breen Senior mutual fund analyst Michael Breen got to travel to upstate New York to profile Manning & Napier, the subject of his Undiscovered Manager profile (page 60). He was so captivated by the many charms of the region that he plans a return visit with his family. “I’ll travel the Canandaigua Wine Trail in the Finger Lakes area,” he says, “and try to wrangle my way onto the world-class golf course at Oak Hill Country Club.” And what about the kids? “They’ll bone up on their history lessons at the Erie Canal sites.” Paul Kaplan As vice president of quantitative research, Paul Kaplan, Ph.D., CFA, is Morningstar’s “in-house academic.” Kaplan, who wrote the Gray Matters Q&A on serial correlation (page 17), is responsible for the quantitative methodologies behind Morningstar’s fund analysis, indexes, and advisor tools—pretty much anything with a formula behind it. He joined Morningstar in 1999 after a distinguished stint as the chief economist and director of research at Ibbotson Associates. A native New Yorker, Kaplan moved to the Midwest to attend graduate school at Northwestern and has been here ever since. 8 Morningstar Advisor Fall 2007

Morningstar Advisor - Fall 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Morningstar Advisor - Fall 2007