Baird, Mary Ellen Stanek Nominated For 2022 Morningstar Awards
MILWAUKEE, April 11, 2022 – Employee-owned Baird announced today that Baird has been nominated for Morningstar’s 2022 Exemplary Stewardship award for the first time. In addition, Mary Ellen Stanek, CFA, President of Baird Funds and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Baird Advisors, has been nominated for the 2022 Morningstar Awards for Investing Excellence in the Outstanding Portfolio Manager category for the fourth straight year. Stanek is being recognized as the Co-Chief Investment Officer of the team that manages Baird Ultra Short Bond Fund (BUBIX), Baird Short-Term Bond Fund (BSBIX), Baird Intermediate Bond Fund (BIMIX), Baird Aggregate Bond Fund (BAGIX) and Baird Core Plus Bond Fund(BCOIX).
Morningstar presents the Exemplary Stewardship Award to an asset manager that has shown an unwavering focus on serving the best interests of investors. The firms must demonstrate an investor focused corporate culture and an alignment of interests between investors and the people who control the destiny of the investment strategies.
The Morningstar Awards for Investing Excellence recognize portfolio managers and asset-management firms that demonstrate excellent investment skill, the courage to differ from the consensus to benefit investors, and an alignment of interests with the strategies’ investors. Morningstar’s manager research analysts conduct in-depth qualitative analyses in order to select nominees and, subsequently, vote to determine the award winner. Morningstar’s methodology is available here.
This recognition for both Mary Ellen and Baird as a whole is an extraordinary honor. Mary Ellen and her outstanding team have a proven approach that has helped their clients navigate all kinds of markets. And we are proud to be under consideration for exemplary stewardship as it has always been our foremost goal.
Steve Booth - Baird’s Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Baird Advisors is known for managing high-quality investment grade bond portfolios using a duration neutral approach. In a recent write up, Morningstar analysts said: “Mary Ellen Stanek and her crew have maintained the same structured and thoughtful investment process for just shy of two decades…Rather than chase yield by digging into riskier parts of the fixed-income market, the managers instead seek value through sector rotation and security selection among investment-grade corporate bonds, securitized debt, and U.S. Treasuries. They avoid derivatives, foreign currency, and leverage while keeping the portfolio’s duration strictly neutral to that of its Aggregate Index benchmark. In most markets, the fund has outrun its benchmark through a focus on corporate and high-quality securitized credit relative to U.S. Treasuries and agency mortgages.”
I’m humbled to be recognized among this distinguished group of investment professionals. This recognition would not be possible without our team. I remain grateful for how our team continually supports our investors with our all-weather approach. We’re proud to do this work and serve our investors year after year.
Mary Ellen Stanek
The winners will be announced on CNBC, the week of April 18, 2022, and again at the Morningstar Investment Conference.
Disclosure: Please click here for current performance, ratings and maximum sales charge, load or fees that may be associated with Baird Funds.
Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of each fund carefully before investing. This and other information is found in the prospectus and summary prospectus. For a prospectus or summary prospectus, contact Baird directly at 866-442-2473 or visit bairdfunds.com. Please read the prospectus or summary prospectus carefully before investing.
Performance data represents past performance and does not guarantee future results. The investment return and principal value of the investment will fluctuate so that shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance data may be lower or higher than the data quoted. For performance data to the most recent month end, contact Baird directly at 866-442-2473 or www.bairdassetmanagement.com/baird-funds
Some of the potential risks associated with fixed income investments include call risk, reinvestment risk, interest rate risk, credit risk, default risk, liquidity risk and inflation risk. Additionally, it is important that an investor is familiar with the inverse relationship between a bond’s price and its yield. Bond prices will fall as interest rates rise and vice versa.
Morningstar Awards 2022 (c). Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Nomination awarded to Mary Ellen Stanek and Baird for the 2022 U.S. Morningstar Awards for Investing Excellence.
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About Baird Funds
Baird Funds is a no-load mutual fund family with more than $96 billion in assets as of March 31, 2022. The Baird Funds offer proven track records and a variety of portfolios spanning fixed income and equity asset classes, feature competitive fees and are managed with a careful focus on risk control. For more information, visit www.bairdfunds.com.
About Baird
Putting clients first since 1919, Baird is an employee-owned, international wealth management, asset management, investment banking/capital markets, and private equity firm with offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Baird has approximately 4,600 associates serving the needs of individual, corporate, institutional and municipal clients and more than $415 billion in client assets as of Dec. 31, 2021. Committed to being a great workplace, Baird ranked No. 32 on the 2021 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® list – its 18th consecutive year on the list. Baird is the marketing name of Baird Financial Group. Baird’s principal operating subsidiaries are Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated and Baird Trust Company in the United States and Robert W. Baird Group Ltd. in Europe. Baird also has an operating subsidiary in Asia supporting Baird’s investment banking and private equity operations. For more information, please visit Baird’s website at www.rwbaird.com.
For additional information, contact:
Jody Lowe
414-322-9311
jody@lowecom.com
