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Additional information |
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Mairs & Power, Inc. |
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History:
Mairs and Power is an SEC-registered investment advisory firm and is Minnesota's oldest investment firm under continuous ownership and management.
The firm was founded in 1931 by George A. Mairs, Jr., a St. Paul native who at the age of 28 determined that the field of investment management was under-represented in the Twin Cities and might provide a career opportunity. Already holding an undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania's Lafayette College, he went on to earn a Master's degree in corporate finance from the University of Minnesota. Mairs then became Minnesota's first independent professional investment counsel, just 15 months after the stock market crash of 1929.
The Great Depression years of the 1930s were a challenging period and the business grew slowly. Railroads had been a bedrock of the St. Paul economy, and it therefore was natural that Mairs had particular interest in rail securities. By 1940, many of his clients' investments, led by rail securities, had shown marked appreciation, and recognition of his investment acumen had been established.
In 1944 George C. Power, Jr. joined the firm, which then became known as Mairs and Power, Inc. A graduate of Carleton College, Power had begun his investment career in 1934 with the research affiliate of First Bank Stock Corporation (now U.S. Bancorp). In 1952, Mairs' son George A. Mairs, III entered the firm, having attended Yale University and then graduated from Macalester College.
The 1950s was a period of solid growth for the firm as well as the nation's economy. The stock market awakened to the realities of the postwar prosperity, and a 10-year bull market ensued. Since the firm's inception, most of its clients had been individual and family investors with some accumulated wealth. However, in the 1950s retirement funds and certain institutions became part of the client base. As the firm grew, it became necessary to establish a minimum asset level for new accounts. The firm wished to be accessible to the small investor and therefore entered the mutual fund field, first with one fund in 1958, the Mairs and Power Growth Fund, and then a second fund in 1961, the Mairs and Power Balanced Fund. These were established as no-load funds, bearing neither sales nor redemption charges, and at the time of their inception, there were fewer than 100 such funds in the nation.
George A. Mairs, Jr. retired from active management in 1975 but continued as a shareholder until his death in 1983. In 1992, William B. Frels, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, joined the firm after a 30-year career in investment management, the last 20 of which included senior investment positions in two major St. Paul trust departments.
Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s the firm's business continued to grow rapidly under the strong leadership of George Mairs III and William B. Frels. Mairs and Power was further strengthened during this period as six additional established investment professionals joined the firm: Peter G. Robb in 1994, John K. Butler in 1999, Ronald L. Kaliebe in 2001, Jon A. Theobald in 2002, Mark L. Henneman in 2004, and Andrew R. Adams in 2006. |
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Asset Under Management:
$5 billion |
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