A Milestone Year in 2024

Last September, I outlined the transition plan for Cornerstone over the next two years. I am happy to report that phase one of that plan has been implemented. On January 1, Skip Cowen became President Emeritus with Kevin Karpuk taking on the President role. Simultaneously, Ryan Wood and Trevor Reid became Cornerstone’s Chief Investment Officers. Ryan and Trevor have years of experience and are highly qualified to manage their increased responsibilities. This is particularly important given the probable changes coming in fiscal and monetary policy over the coming year.

While internally a lot of attention was focused on the transition, there were many more milestones to acknowledge. On January 6, Rita Miller became the 9^th Cornerstone employee-owner to celebrate her 20^thanniversary with the company. Rita started her career as a temporary employee as our receptionist. In talking with her one day, I asked her where she went to college and what her major was. She said she graduated from Muhlenberg with a 3.98 GPA and was a math major. I quickly asked her if there was anything else she wanted to do within the company. The rest is history. Rita has excelled in Investment Operations and works with many of our largest and most complex clients.

Also within our investment operations team, Whitney Bates was promoted to Investment Operations Manager in October. She will be celebrating her 10^th anniversary with the company this year. A Penn State graduate, Whitney sits at the intersection of the investment analyst and operations teams, coordinating trading, reporting, account openings and changes, as well as managing the team.

We are also happy to announce that Angela Oste was named a Principal in December. She started with the company 14 years ago as an administrative assistant, became part of the marketing team and now has the dual role as the Director of Insurance Operations and Planned Giving. She has a history of taking on increasing amounts of responsibility and decision-making and is spending more time in a consulting capacity with our clients. Rita, Whitney, and Angela are all very talented, extremely nice people and examples of success stories at Cornerstone.

We are fortunate to work with many successful people across a variety of industries and often draw inspiration from their own stories. One of those people was Patrick Dempsey, Sr., the patriarch of Dempsey Uniform & Linen Company in Jessup, PA. Pat passed away earlier this month, but I’m confident his legacy will live on for generations through his family and the people and organizations he influenced during his life. One of them was me. About 15 years ago, he gave me a book called The Puritan Gift: Reclaiming the American Dream Amidst Global Financial Chaos. The book traces the origins and characteristics of American managerial culture which, over the course of our country’s history, transformed us into the greatest economic and political power on earth. It argues that drive, energy, innovation, competition, growth and social mobility, all of which lie at the roots of America’s management culture, have their origins from the first wave of European immigrants, the Puritans. It also warns that the further we get away from these core values, the greater we put our future prosperity and security at risk. The lessons are particularly resonant today as many institutions are being disrupted by innovation and change. I will always be indebted to Pat for sharing the book and helping me to crystallize the values and culture we have at Cornerstone.

In December, we were delighted to be informed by Pension & Investments, a leading publication in our industry, that Cornerstone Advisors Asset Management was ranked the #1 employer (with an employee count of 25 -50) nationally in their 2024 Best Places to Work in Money Management survey. We have been on the list for several years, but this year, we are at the top of it! There were many wonderful things written, but the following comment from one of our employee-owners sums it up nicely, “We have built a culture of caring and achievement at the company. People are challenged and rewarded to use their leadership skills to take on greater levels of responsibility over time. They show up for each other in their time of need and go out of their way to serve our clients.”

As you know from previous communications, we have lots of success stories at the company. It is the legacy Skip and I will ultimately leave to the next generation of Cornerstone. Even though Skip and I are not leaving anytime soon, it is those next generation leaders who will be there for you for years to come. Thank you for the trust you put in us to take care of you and your organizations. We are very excited for 2025 and look forward to seeing you all soon.