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| Tradewinds Chief Investment Officer David Iben directs the firm’s equity and fixed income
investment activity, including portfolio management, research, trading, and risk management. In addition
to serving as the lead portfolio manager of several of the firm’s strategies, Dave is a member of the
Tradewinds Executive Committee. As CIO, he also chairs the Investment Oversight Committee. |
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| Dave helped launch the Tradewinds international investment platform after six years at NWQ.
He was previously chief executive officer, lead portfolio manager, and founding member of Palladian Capital
Management and, prior to that, senior portfolio manager at Cramblit & Carney. Dave began his career with
Farmers Group Inc. where over the course of 14 years he served as senior analyst, lead portfolio manager,
and director of research for both equity and fixed income strategies. At the time of his departure in 1996,
Dave was acting as Farmers’ chief investment officer responsible for $16 billion of investable assets. |
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| Dave received a bachelor’s degree in economics from University of California, Davis, and an
MBA from USC Marshall School of Business. He earned the chartered financial analyst designation in 1984 and
is a member of CFA Institute and CFA Society of Los Angeles. |
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| Is it really necessary to meet the management of the companies in which we invest? No, not always; but
I do find site visits quite useful in the mining/natural resources sector. |
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| Mark Twain once called a mine "a hole in the ground with a liar standing next to it." Bearing this in mind,
nothing compares to seeing with your own eyes that a developer has actually put the claimed investment
into action. |
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| In 2005, I spent two of the longest hours of my life on a commuter flight from La Paz to a remote
Bolivian mine site, my stomach roiling after a lunch of the local specialty, chupe de camarones
(shrimp stew). |
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| The site lay at 14,000-feet, atop a desolate plateau: nothing but brown, dried-up cactus and scrub as
far as the eye could see. |
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| The site I visited that day was operated by Apex Mines, a Denver-based firm with projects in Mexico
and Bolivia. Knowing that Apex was the operator, coupled with seeing the actual site and meeting the
qualified veteran staff deployed there, gave us confidence in our investment. It was interesting to see
the way that Apex functioned on the ground. In addition to their foreign expatriates, they hired many
local staff. What’s more, they built a hospital and installed electricity at the site. They even moved
a jeopardized historic church to a safe location. |
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| A few nights later, back in La Paz, with digestive tract considerably mollified, I enjoyed an excellent
meal attended by both the US and UK ambassadors to Bolivia. Talk inevitably turned to politics, as people
bantered about the prospect of Evo Morales—a leftist comrade of Hugo Chavez—winning the presidential
election. A foreign businessman raised the subject of whether Bolivians are entitled to partake in the
wealth generated from their natural resources. |
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| Now, Bolivia has an extremely poor population living atop some of the best supplies of natural gas,
silver, and zinc in the hemisphere. It seems reasonable that foreign firms stand to benefit from giving
back to their host communities. If, like Apex, they make a practice of hiring local staff and creating
infrastructure improvements such as schools, hospitals, power grids, it is less likely that governments
will choose to expropriate their projects. (This is a very real risk we pay close attention to as investors.)
Governments and NGOs monitor the treatment of the environment as well. Firms that bring a track record of
socially responsible behavior when bidding on new projects in other countries find themselves in a strong
position. In short, doing the right thing can directly translate to new projects, revenues, and profits.
Good corporate citizenry is good for business in the long run. |
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Country |
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Bolivia |
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Capital city |
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La Paz |
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Language |
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Spanish (official); Quechua, Aymara, Guarani |
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Population |
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9.2 million |
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Form of government |
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republic |
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Currency |
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boliviano |
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GDP - national |
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$9.7 billion |
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GDP - per capita |
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$940 |
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GDP – real rate growth |
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4% |
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Natural resources |
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Mining (zinc, tungsten, antimony, silver, lead, gold, and iron); hydrocarbons (natural gas, petroleum) |
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Industry |
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Mineral and hydrocarbon extraction, manufacturing, commerce, textiles, food processing, chemicals, plastics, mineral smelting, and petroleum refining |
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| Source: U.S. Department of State |
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