Margaret Franklin’s climb from chartered financial analyst and wealth manager to being the public face of the CFA Institute began 10 years ago with what she calls a “tap on the shoulder.” In early 2000, her boss at the time, Harry Marmer at Toronto-based Mercer LLC, asked Franklin to fill in for a member of the CFA’s Toronto board who was on leave. She accepted, and has never looked back. As the recently appointed chairwoman of the Virginia-based CFA Institute’s board of governors recalls: “It was what they call ‘the beginning of a beautiful friendship’.”

Franklin’s appointment could hardly come at a more crucial time for the 54-year-old institute. With the debacle of the global financial crisis still fresh in the minds of everyone from regulators and financial industry professionals to clients, the integrity of the financial system and of those who work in it is top of mind for the still widely respected institute. It’s determined to maintain — and, if necessary, repair — that reputation in the years ahead.

The top priority in 2011 for Franklin as chairwoman will be to help the CFA Institute develop its role beyond the administration of its already widely known professional designation. Although the chartered financial analyst program will always be the institute’s “crown jewel,” says Franklin, the board wants institute members to see the organization in a broader context, particularly as a means to facilitate lifelong learning in the field. Says Franklin: “We want to see someone getting their CFA as the starting point of a relationship with the institute.”

One priority is to develop the resources on the institute’s website to make them more relevant to the day-to-day practices of CFAs worldwide, as well as more searchable.

The CFA will also focus on issues of integrity in capital markets and restoring investor confidence in financial services professionals. The institute is considering the creation of task forces to help highlight industry best practices, says Franklin: “Our thinking is: if not us, who? If not now, when?”

In addition, the institute’s executive team will work on its “tap on the shoulder” concept in an effort to recruit more CFA holders for expanded roles in running the institute. As it’s a big-time commitment to be on any board, Franklin says, most CFA holders don’t participate until they are asked.

Franklin says she enjoyed the work and by 2003 had become president of the institute’s Toronto chapter. She then spent six years volunteering on the institute’s board, including heading up the planning, external relations and audit and risk committees. She was elected chairwoman last September. Says Franklin: “Sometimes, you don’t know what you are capable of until you are asked.”

This year will be a further test of Franklin’s ability to shoulder new challenges. Bay Street will be watching to see how she performs as president and CEO of Kinsale Private Wealth Inc. , a private wealth-management firm aimed at high net-worth individuals that Franklin launched last April. This venture clearly carries some risks: the prospects for economic recovery remain murky, not to mention the uncertainties inherent in starting up a new venture in an intensely competitive business.@page_break@But to Franklin, it was the perfect time to launch a new venture. As she notes, a crisis can also bring opportunity. “Many people got burned in the downturn and are now yearning to have more honest conversations about their portfolios,” she says. “Launching this firm was about having more of those conversations.”

In particular, Franklin wants to focus on her own view of wise wealth management. After two decades of working in the business, Franklin says, she favours a conservative approach, especially for her clients, most of whom are successful entrepreneurs who — above all other investment goals — want to preserve their hard-earned wealth. “We believe in getting returns using low volatility,” says Franklin. “While you could get ‘out of the ballpark’ returns, it’s not worth it if you had to take a lot of risk, year after year, to get there.”

Franklin began developing her views on investing and the market after the stock market crash of October 1987, ideas she developed further when she became the marketing manager for the Toronto office of Boston-based State Street Global Advisors in 1991. There, Franklin was able to apply skills she had gained in her prior career selling outdoor media advertising: a knack for translating jargon and using humour to get her message across to clients.

After four years in marketing at State Street, Franklin found herself wanting to be on the investment side of the business. She realized she was much more passionate about analysing market data than she was about packaging it. “The markets have a way of capturing the way people grapple with confidence and fear,” she says. “I wanted to be a part of analyzing that.”

With a bachelor’s degree in economics and the Canadian securities course already under her belt, Franklin decided that acquiring the CFA designation would be her best door opener. After preparing for her Level 1 CFA exam while on maternity leave (Franklin says she was able to get by on less than three hours of sleep), she landed a position as a senior investments consultant at Mercer in early 1996. She later worked at the former Toronto office of San Francisco-based Barclays Global Investors and at Toronto-based Altamira Financial Services Ltd., a mutual fund company that is now part of National Bank of Canada. “I really enjoyed working with high net-worth clients,” Franklin says. “They have an interesting perspective on capital because most of them have built their own.”

Franklin continued in the HNW wealth-management field after joining Toronto-based private wealth-management firm KJ Harrison & Partners Inc. for six years.

Franklin says that being a woman has made little difference to her as she has pursued her career. Rather, the competitive nature of her peers has connected with her “go for it” nature. “In this business, it’s all about whether or not you are good at what you do because your pay is based on how well you perform. It has nothing to do with your gender,” says Franklin, who was named one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women by the Women’s Executive Network in late 2010.

Still, Franklin feels a strong sense of obligation when it comes to being a role model for women who want to compete at the highest levels in business. “A woman can have a great career in finance, as well as a personal life,” says Franklin, who often makes time to play golf and other sports with her husband, architect Mark Franklin, and two teenagers on the weekends. IE