Getting To Know Haverford President Keith Aleardi

Last month we introduced our new President, Keith Aleardi, CFA. Read below to get a better insight into who our new President is.

About 30 years ago I was a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch and I remember hearing about the Quality Investing philosophy practiced by what was then called Rittenhouse Trust. Over the years I discovered what a great firm it was, met the team, and saw how they managed money. I was impressed with the approach and philosophy.

I am so impressed with the employees, the people here, and the culture that leadership and the employees have created within the firm. Culture is a real ‘must have’ for me. It starts with the tradition not only of always putting the client first, but always doing the right thing for our clients. From there it’s about how well we collaborate together and how people like working with one another to provide the best service to our clients.

The firm has grown so much over the years, yet there are clients and employees that have been here for so long. I’m pleasantly surprised about the way that Haverford has been able to maintain the philosophy, the traditions, and the culture.

Our challenge, which is also our opportunity, is navigating clients through all of the uncertainty that is happening today – in the markets, in the economy, and geopolitically. Our core philosophy of Quality Investing is, I believe, the greatest opportunity to help clients through the challenges that we’re facing right now.

I’m looking forward to building relationships – relationships with every employee here and as many clients, even all of our clients, as possible. I am looking forward to getting to know what’s important to them in their business, in their career and what they do. So it’s about building relationships, not only in my first year, but for many years to come.

Outside of my kids sports, which I enjoy, I really like yard work. I think it came out of the pandemic because I was in the house all day long, every day, and it was a stressful time. I would say to my wife, “I’m just gonna go outside.” I needed fresh air and some sort of activity, and I just started cutting things back or trimming things up. It was very stress relieving and now I’ve come to enjoy yard work. It’s odd for me to say that, but what I enjoy doing outside of work is outside work.

Over the years I’ve been very involved with the schools that I’ve attended, and my wife and I also continue to be very involved in the schools that my kids have attended. I’ve realized that it’s probably because I have a natural passion for education, and I would like to become even more involved in education in the Philadelphia area. I had an opportunity to spend a little time with the student interns from Cristo Rey and was so extremely impressed with those four young people. So, as a start, I would love to continue that program and even perhaps personally get more involved with it.

I have heard about the client event in Avalon, and I hear that’s a wonderful event for our clients and a great way to spend a little time with clients over the summer. I’m excited to participate in that.

I think it goes back to culture and maintaining, supporting, and cultivating our culture. We’ve added a lot of new employees over the last year or two as we’ve been successful and growing, and as you grow it becomes harder and harder to maintain the culture that has been in place over the last 40 years. So, a main goal of mine is to really cultivate and keep the culture within Haverford thriving.