The Beedie School of Business has just launched the $5-million Beedie Endowment Asset Management (BEAM) fund, the largest undergraduate student-managed fund in Canada.

The BEAM fund draws its money from the Beedie School’s endowment fund, created in 2011 from a $22-million gift from philanthropists Ryan and Keith Beedie.

The new fund is second in size overall after SFU’s $10.8-million Student Investment Advisory Service (SIAS), an SFU endowment fund that is managed by graduate business students. SIAS is Canada’s largest graduate student-managed fund.

Each year, 10 to 15 third-year undergraduate finance students in the bachelor of business administration program will manage the BEAM fund for a two-year term.

They’ll gain significant real-world investment-management experience as they tackle investment research and analysis and buy and sell Canadian bonds and equities.

“The opportunity to manage the Beedie Endowment Asset Management fund rigorously tests and expands the students’ qualitative, quantitative and analytical skills, and truly launches their careers in the finance industry while they are still in school,” says finance professor Peter Klein, an advisor to the undergraduate fund.

“One of the elements that distinguishes this initiative is that we have a clearly defined client and mandate,” he says.

The fund follows a value-investing mandate set by the client—SFU—through a conservative investment policy statement. It includes three actively managed asset classes: cash, Canadian equity and fixed income.

The fund’s performance will be monitored closely against relevant benchmark indices and results will be presented quarterly to a performance-review committee of industry experts keen to challenge and advise students.

Students will complement their investment management work in the fund with coursework in portfolio management and strategic asset allocation.