AGF Expands Global Equity Team

Experienced and talented new hires complement award-winning team

TORONTO, Oct. 31, 2012 /CNW/ - AGF Investments Inc. (AGF) announced the appointment of five investment professionals to join its award-winning Global Equity Team. AGF welcomes Timothy Codrington, Vinod Dasaratha, Sanjay Luthra, Maksim Piskunov and Grace Huang.

All five professionals bring a wealth of experience to AGF's global equity and emerging markets mandates. Working alongside industry veteran Stephen Way and portfolio managers Alpha Ba and Thiery Jannini, these talented individuals will be bringing more than 50-years combined experience to the AGF Emerging Markets Fund, AGF Global Dividend Fund and AGF Global Equity Fund.

The team manages several top Morningstar-rated funds, including the AGF Emerging Markets Fund, AGF Global Dividend Fund, and the AGF Global Equity Class, among others. It manages several billion in total assets for retail investors and major national and international institutional clients.

"A targeted, global search on three continents identified many outstanding candidates," said Martin Hubbes, Executive Vice-President, Investments and Chief Investment Officer at AGF Investments Inc. "Our objective was to build upon our exceptional team, capable of competing directly with the best in the world. These new hires are solid additions to our team."

Hubbes added, "As a global investment management firm, these appointments reinforce our commitment to building a strong and talented investment management roster that will continue to improve upon AGF's tremendous track record in the global and emerging markets space."

Stephen Way, AGF Senior Vice-President and Portfolio Manager, is responsible for ensuring the investment philosophy and process for AGF's Global and Emerging Markets mandates continues to deliver industry-leading results. He is one of the longest tenured global equity managers in Canada and the architect of the investment process for these mandates.

"Beyond their compelling credentials, each of these experienced individuals also share the culture and philosophy that has contributed to our strong performance over the years," explained Way. "And, as is the case with the existing team, everyone joining has lived, studied or worked overseas. We hail from six different countries and speak 10 different languages."

The newest members of AGF's Global Equity Team are:

Timothy Codrington relocated from Boston to join AGF as an Associate Portfolio Manager. He has more than 14 years of investment management experience, and was most recently with Putnam Investments where he co-managed the firm's Global Consumer Fund to a top-quartile three-year track record as rated by Morningstar.

A Harvard MBA and BA graduate, Tim has extensive travel experience including time in mainland China to conduct research. He has also spent several years studying Mandarin.

Vinod Dasaratha joins as a Global Equity Analyst and has eight years of emerging and developed market experience, most recently with Heckman Global Advisors as part of the team that helped develop the country allocation framework that AGF uses for the Global Dividend Fund and Global Equity Fund.

At AGF, he is responsible for further developing and enhancing this country allocation framework. Vinod holds an MS and BE in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University and the University of Mysore, India, respectively. He is fluent in Kannada, Tamil and Hindi.

Sanjay Luthra joins as a Global Equity Analyst and has five years of industry experience, most recently with OMERS where he specialized in Asia and Europe covering Technology, Media and Telecom sectors. Prior to that Sanjay spent seven years at Tata Consulting, one of India's largest and most profitable companies providing business solutions and services to multinational companies around the world.

Fluent in Hindi, Sanjay received his B.Eng from the Birla Institute of Technology Ranchi, India and his MBA from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.

Maksim Piskunov joins as a Global Equity Analyst. Most recently he was with T. Rowe Price in London, U.K. where he worked on an African and Middle East Fund. Prior to that he worked at the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) where he was involved in the private equity division and became familiar with emerging markets, mostly in Asia. Maks was also an extensive user of the EVA analysis that AGF uses for its global and emerging markets mandates.  Prior to CPPIB, Maks was a business analyst at McKinsey & Company in Chicago and Toronto, where he developed plans and strategies for a variety of companies.

He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and has degrees in International Relations and Economics from the Wharton School and College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Maks speaks Russian and Belarusian.

Grace Huang joins as a Global Equity Analyst and has more than 20 years of experience. Most recently she was at Altima Advisors Americas LP, where she was responsible for security selection, both long and short, in emerging market portfolios. Prior to that, Grace worked at American Century Investments where she specialized in emerging markets and international equities.

Grace holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School at the University of Western Ontario and a B.Econ. in International Finance from Fudan University, China's top university in finance education. She is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese.

About AGF Management Limited

AGF Management Limited (AGFML) is one of Canada's premier independent investment management firms with offices across Canada and subsidiaries around the world. AGFML's products include a diversified family of award-winning mutual funds, mutual fund wrap programs and pooled funds. AGFML also manages assets on behalf of institutional investors including pension plans, foundations and endowments as well as for private clients. With over $41 billion in total assets under management, AGFML serves more than one million investors. AGFML trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol AGF.B.

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SOURCE: AGF

Peter Block
NATIONAL Public Relations
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