In the early 1980s, there were a number of financial professionals in Mississippi who started dinner meetings under the leadership of Bill Whitney, CFA, and others. Several of these CFAs were members of the New Orleans Financial Analyst Society. The Mississippi chapter was admitted and accepted under the Financial Analysts Federation (FAF) in 1984 under the presidency of Walter P. Neely (chapter president from 1984 to 1986). In 1986, the Mississippi Chapter was affiliated with the Memphis Society of Financial Analysts. Later, the Society gained status as the Mississippi Society of Financial Analysts as a member society of the newly renamed Association of Investment Management and Research (AIMR). In 2005 the CFA Institute succeeded the AIMR, and in 2015 our Society's name was changed to the "CFA Society Mississippi."
Today, we have grown to 90 members who make up the cornerstones of our success as a society and believe in our mission of "advancing the investment and financial communities through education, professionalism, and ethics in our region."
Shreveport Chapter of CFA Society Mississippi
In 2020 the Shreveport Chapter of the CFA Society Mississippi was formed.
The Shreveport CFA Chapter has a long history with CFA Society Mississippi dating back to 1993 with Dr. Walter Neely, current Candidate Preparation/Scholarship Chair and former president on the CFA Society Mississippi Board, and his excellent exam preparation courses at Millsaps College. Those prep courses led to Shreveport’s first CFA Charterholder in 1996. The second Charterholder was, appropriately an academic, Dr. Barbara Davis, CFA, of Centenary College. With the encouragement and support of both Dr. Neely and Dr. Davis who helped in spreading the word of the CFA Program to their students, the Shreveport chapter has organically grown in the number of Shreveport Charterholders to ten.
The Shreveport members began informal lunch meetings at the Shreveport Club in 1999. These quarterly luncheons provided a networking platform that encouraged local investment management firms to have their own employees pursue the CFA Charter.
Today, the integration of the Shreveport Chapter with CFA Society Mississippi and the CFA Institute outreach programs will allow for the further success of more CFA Charterholders.
Contact Shreveport Society Chapter
Dick Seale, CFA
Office: (318) 703-3641
Cell: (318) 393-9893