The Goodman Institute of Investment Management has been named a CFA program partner school by the U.S.-based Chartered Financial Analyst Institute, the first in Canada to be so recognized.

“The CFA program creates the culture and the character required to be an investment manager,” says Ned Goodman, the Goodman Institute’s founder and benefactor. Goodman, chairman of Toronto-based Dundee Corp. , was among the first to earn a CFA when the program was started in the 1960s.

The Montreal-based Goodman Institute, part of Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business, offers a curriculum leading to a master’s degree in business administration and has prepared students to take the CFA exam since 2001. In April, the institute became an official CFA program partner, one of only six institutions in the world.

The CFA is a rigorous program for financial analysts, portfolio managers and investment advisors. The curriculum and exams are identical worldwide and are always administered in English. The CFAI says fewer than 20% of students finish the program and earn the CFA designation.

“It’s a tough grind, but that suits me,” says Goodman of the combined MBA-CFA course. “Being an investment manager is a 24/7 job. This program is tough but doable.”

Five years ago, when Goodman realized that new people entering the industry weren’t coming in with all the necessary tools to be investment managers, he suggested the idea of a combined MBA-CFA program at Concordia and then provided the funding.

Goodman says the CFA’s stringent code of ethics — including the threat of losing the designation if a graduate doesn’t maintain high standards in his or her career — is one of the CFA’s appeals for an employer. Another big plus is the skills it gives a graduate to navigate today’s complicated world of portfolio-management theories.

“You’ll at least know what you’re doing,“ Goodman says. “Otherwise, you’ll just copy the guy behind you.”

The Goodman Institute’s MBA-CFA course is a three-year program designed so that students can work during the day and attend classes at night. The courses are taught simultaneously in Toronto and Montreal, with professors commuting back and forth for alternating weeks so students in each city can have direct access. Students in the other city are then connected via video conferencing.

In addition to the Goodman Institute, other schools named as CFA program partners are Saïd Business School at Oxford University in Britain, Bocconi University in Milan, Boston University, Marquette University in Milwaukee, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The CFAI says it intends to name additional partner schools this year.

— Rudy Mezzetta