Peter D. Wells

PETER D. WELLS is Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager of Kanne,
Paris & Hoban, Inc. Mr. Wells graduated from the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a B.S. in Economics. He did graduate work in
economics at UW-M and studied law at the University of Chicago Law
School. He began his investment career as a securities trader in the
trust department of the Marine National Exchange Bank in Milwaukee, and
subsequently became a security analyst. After two years with Robert W.
Baird & Co., a midwest regional brokerage firm, Mr. Wells rejoined the
Marine where he became Director of Research. He joined the Equity
Investment department of Allstate Insurance Company in 1978 where he
became the first Group Vice President for Equities and Venture Capital.
He then assumed responsibility for managing the fixed income programs
for the Property and Casualty operations. Mr. Wells was the second
ranking officer in an Investment Department that managed $50 billion in
assets at the time he took early retirement in 1995. He made several
presentations to industry groups regarding Allstate efforts to reduce
portfolio turnover and transaction costs. He was widely interviewed in
national investment media regarding his efforts to get Wall Street firms
to divulge their research costs to justify Allstate’s commission
expenses.