Morningstar Managers of the Year

This article originally appeared in the February/March 2013 issue of MorningstarAdvisor magazine. To subscribe, please call 1-800-384-4000.

Domestic Equity: Bill Frels and Mark Henneman, Mairs & Power Growth MPGFX

1 You and many of your largest holdings are based in Minnesota. That’s worked well for you?
We benefit from the fact that there are a lot of well-managed, growth-oriented companies in or around the Twin Cities. We’ve got a lot of raw material to work with.

2 Why is proximity important to you?
Getting to know management and their strategies and how they are planning to achieve their objectives is critical, at least in our minds, to making good long-term investment decisions.

International Equity: Rajiv Jain, Virtus Foreign Opportunities JVIAX, Virtus Emerging Markets Opportunities HEMZX

3 Your funds have more India exposure than most peers and less China. Why?
It’s a function of what companies are being offered. You can get ITC, which is a tobacco monopoly in India, and Hindustan Unilever, which has been around for 120-odd years and has done well. You cannot find any companies of that nature in China.

4 What is the investment story in India?
In India, we feel there is a big, long-term consumption story that is not well appreciated. 

Fixed Income: Mark Kiesel, PIMCO Investment Grade Corporate Bond PBDAX