About Us

Brief History

In 2003, a group of motivated students, driven by their newfound passion for investing and appreciation for fellow successful student-run asset managers across the world, launched the Queen’s University Investment Club. From 2003 to 2010, the QUIC team managed a mock portfolio, investing in both equity and debt securities. Over this time period, the portfolio returned 73.4%, outperforming its benchmark index by 23.6%. In 2009, QUIC began its fundraising initiatives as members conducted exam-review tutorials for Commerce students, raising over $13,604 in the process. The fundraising effort culminated in 2010 when the Club raised $500,000 in seed money from the Smith School of Business. That year, the fund recorded real portfolio gains of 17.5% for the 5-month initial fiscal year ending February 28th, 2011, representing an outperformance over the S&P/TSX Index of 2.2% during that period.

In this transition, the Queen’s University Investment Club became the Queen’s University Investment Counsel – an Educational Program of the Smith School of Business and ongoing partnership between our team and Queen’s University.  A Board of Directors, consisting of faculty and staff at the Smith School of Business, was established to oversee the fund’s investments and provide guidance to the Counsel executive. An Alumni Council, consisting of eight Smith School of Business graduates who had been involved with QUIC, was also established to mentor members and guide the executive.

In 2014, QUIC received a generous donation from Mackenzie Investments pledging $500,000 and educational resources from the firm. The additional injection of capital allowed QUIC to establish a second portfolio, the QUIC-Mackenzie World Investment Fund, focusing on global equities. In fiscal year 2017, the Counsel posted absolute returns of 23.1% and a risk-adjusted return of 1.0% on a portfolio beta of 0.93.  The QUIC-Mackenzie World Investment Fund posted absolute returns of 18.9% and a risk-adjusted return of -2.5% on a portfolio beta of 0.95.

Today, QUIC is heralded as one of Canada’s premier undergraduate investment funds, with $2.1 million in assets under management. Our alumni can be found at the apex of multiple industries around the world and remain engaged with the development of the organization and its current members.