Alberta's Top Employers (2025) Magazine - Flipbook - Page 52
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ALBERTA’S TOP EMPLOYERS (2025)
Lifelong learning is a cornerstone at Mawer
S
ince joining
Mawer Investment
Management Ltd. in
2016, Karan Phadke has
taken courses in speed
reading, marketing, high risk
management, and one taught by
ex-FBI and police hostage negotiators on improving interviewing
and negotiation skills – all using
his yearly $5,000 learning stipend
that allows full-time employees to
choose their own development opportunities, including conferences.
No approval by management is
needed if the opportunity adds
value to the firm.
“The courses have helped with
my skills, particularly when it
comes to interviewing or listening,
because a big part of the job is
interviewing management teams,”
says Phadke, portfolio manager.
“Then, there’s an obvious tangible
benefit to the ones that are specifically finance-related, which have
helped when it comes to making
investment decisions or even
constructing our portfolios.
It also keeps me more engaged
and energetic.”
“Mawer prioritizes constant
learning and improvement – making sure that we get better as investors and always put the clients’
interests first,” he says. “These
are values that come from the top
down. Having alignment around
our culture is a really important
component of the firm.”
Phil Mittertreiner, chief learning
officer at Mawer, says the idea
behind eliminating manager
approvals for the learning stipend
is to simply to remove any barriers
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Mawer provides full-time employees with a learning stipend that can be used on anything that adds value to
the firm.
or obstacles to learning. Popular
uses include hiring experts and
career coaches and enrolling in
unique courses.
If you’re not learning,
you’re not getting better,
and you’re not engaged.
— Karan Phadke
Portfolio Manager
“People love having the
flexibility to make their own
choices and, equally, knowing
that we trust their judgment,”
says Mittertreiner. “It’s a natural
by-product of our culture in
that we try to be innovative
and creative while continually
improving.”
“One of our values is pursuing
excellence, another one is thinking long term,” he says. “When
you combine those two, learning
is the way to get there, so we see
learning as integral to our success
at the firm.”
Firm-wide learning programs
include leadership development,
featuring monthly three-hour
workshops with guest speakers
and small group discussions, as
well as professional development
with external coaching offered for
all employees. Additionally, the
firm offers mentorship, team development and diversity education
programs, along with frequent
lunch and learns.
Mawer also introduced a learning management system at the
beginning of 2024, learnMAWER,
that houses a variety of learning
opportunities in a flexible format,
including some very structured
