Lauren Johnson

My career path has been deeply rooted in real estate and finance from the start. I came into college thinking I'd pursue finance because both my parents work in related fields - my dad's an SBA lender and my mom helps out in the retirement industry. When I was studying abroad in London my sophomore year, I ran into a family friend working for a large real estate brokerage firm, and he introduced me to commercial real estate. I didn't even realize our school had a real estate program, so I went and got my real estate license in Minnesota, finishing it when I was 19 while I was in London. When I got back, I found out St. Thomas had a real estate major path, so I enrolled for the double major in finance and real estate. I had internships at major firms like Peetram Real Estate in San Francisco, where I won an underwriting case study with my partner for a luxury apartment in Laguna Niguel, California. We had to underwrite what we thought it was worth and pitch our investment thesis to portfolio managers. I also interned at Hempel Real Estate, a smaller boutique firm in Minneapolis, where I got to see the entrepreneurial side of real estate. My senior year, I was introduced to the Aristotle fund at St. Thomas, a student-managed endowment fund with about $6 million in assets under management. It was very competitive to get into - you have to be a really good student and it's a full year commitment. I covered financials and REITs there, which led me to my current role as a research analyst at Heartland Advisors. Now I spend most of my week preparing for our research meeting, where we present investment ideas that would be a good fit for our portfolio. A lot of it is continual research on current positions as well as sifting through new ideas and looking at market updates. I check news related to my coverage first thing every morning and communicate any updates with my portfolio manager. I currently hold my Series 7 and Series 66 licenses and am pursuing my CFA Level 1.