Leo Harmon

Leo Harmon Jr., CFA, is Director of Research and Managing Director Research Division of the Equity Management Group of Mesirow Financial Inc. At Mesirow, Mr. Harmon serves as Co-Portfolio Manager and Director of Research for small-cap value and smid-cap value equity strategies and provides coverage for bank-related companies within the financial services sector. Mr. Harmon has more than 25 years of investment management experience as a portfolio manager and research analyst covering a variety of industries with both larger and smaller market capitalizations and has a particular expertise in financial services. Prior to joining Mesirow Financial, he was a managing director, director of research and portfolio manager for a predecessor company, Fiduciary Management Associates, LLC, where he joined in 2003 and which was subsequently acquired by Mesirow Financial in 2016. Before that, Mr. Harmon was a portfolio manager at Allstate Insurance, Allstate Investments LLC. Mr. Harmon is a CFA charterholder and a CAIA charterholder, as well as a member of the CFA Institute, the CAIA Association, the National Association of Securities Professionals and the Economics Club of Chicago. He is also a member of the CFA Society of Chicago, where he was appointed to the board of directors and served in various roles, including Chairman. In addition, he served as Chairman on the external investment committee for the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer. Mr. Harmon facilitates the firm’s curriculum in the Big Shoulders Fund’s “Stock Market Program,” which provides education on the concepts of investing to eighth-grade students in the neediest areas of inner-city Chicago. Mr. Harmon earned a B.S. in finance from Bradley University and an MBA with a concentration in finance from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.