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David Anders
First vice president
Merrill Lynch
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Anders has been one of the top lodging and gaming analysts in the United States for much of his career. For the past five years, Institutional Investor has named him to its All-America Research Team.
He's relatively upbeat about his sector's overall prospects for 2003. In his latest quarterly outlook, Anders notes that recreational spending has grown faster than disposable income for 20 of the last 21 years. "We see no reason for this to change in 2002," he writes.
For cruise lines and Las Vegas casinos over the next two to three years, Anders sees earnings growth in the teens, on a percentage basis, which sounds pretty good compared to the overall economy. Profits for riverboat and Atlantic City casinos will grow at a "high-single digit" rate, Anders predicts.
Anders also sees a strong 2003 for hotels, with lodging stocks outpacing the S&P 500. Earnings should rise 8 percent overall in 2003 for hotel owner/operators, and 13 percent for manager/franchiser Marriott, he says.
His purview also includes speedways and leisure products. Anders is predicting earnings growth of 7 percent to 11 percent this year for speedways. And at least two of the bigger names in leisure products, Harley-Davidson and Brunswick, will experience double-digit earnings growth, Anders believes.
Anders started his Wall Street career with Montgomery Securities in 1992. Before Merrill Lynch hired him, Anders was a gaming, lodging and leisure analyst for Credit Suisse First Boston. He received a masters degree in finance from the University of Wisconsin.
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Mark Greenberg
Senior vice president, portfolio manager
INVESCO
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Since 1996, Greenberg has run the INVESCO Leisure Fund, whose investments includes cable TV, satellite programming, cruise lines, advertising agencies, hotels, casinos, electronic games and toys, and entertainment companies. It's hard to argue with his record: INVESCO Leisure has outperformed the S&P 500 every year since 1998, and its category average for four of the past five years, according to Morningstar, which has a 5-star rating for Greenberg's fund.

At the end of December, more than half of the INVESCO fund's assets were in five sectors: Motion pictures and television, 14 percent; gaming, 10 percent; publishing, 10 percent; and alcoholic beverages, 10 percent; advertising, 9 percent. Top 10 individual holdings were:
- Omnicom Group, 6.6 percent of the fund's net assets
- International Game Technology, 6.4 percent
- Mattel, 6.2 percent
- Harrah's Entertainment, 5.6 percent
- Liberty Media Class A shares, 4.2 percent
- Carlsberg, 2.8 percent
- Heineken, 2.7 percent
- Anheuser-Busch, 2.4 percent
- Valassis Communications, 2.3 percent
- AOL Time Warner, 2.2 percent
Greenberg began his career in 1980 analyzing stocks for Argus Research. Media and entertainment stocks became his focus when he joined Irving Trust in 1983. In 1988, he joined Campbell Advisors, and in early 1990, Greenberg went to joined Scudder, Stevens & Clark as a global media and entertainment analyst.
He received a bachelor's degree in economics from Marquette University. Greenberg also attended City University in London, England.
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Stephen F. Bollenbach
President, CEO
Hilton Hotels
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Bollenbach's resume includes more than a few notable roles in overhauling companies. He was a key player in Walt Disney's acquisition of ABC/Capital Cities; oversaw the division of Marriott into two companies; reorganized and refinanced the assets and companies of Donald Trump to help the real estate mogul escape a financial quagmire in the early 1990s; restructured Holiday Corp. and set it on the path to a 250 percent gain in its stock price over two years.
His re-engineering ways have continued at Hilton, where he's been the top guy since February 1996. Among other things, Bollenbach had Hilton acquire Bally Entertainment, then spun off Hilton's gaming operations; and bought Promus and its 1,400 hotels and brands such as Doubletree and Embassy Suites.
Unfortunately, Bollenbach's activity hasn't done much for shareholders over the past seven years. Hilton's current stock price is lower than it was when Bollenbach took over:

Hilton's bottom line hasn't fared much better. The company's net income bounced up and down for years as the company absorbed goodwill writedowns related to the aforementioned acquisitions. And of course, 2001 was disastrous for the entire hospitality industry as a weak economy and fears of terrorism kept people closer to home; the impact was even more magnified because 2000 was an outstanding year for the hospitality in general and Hilton in particular. As a result, Hilton's profits fell 40 percent in 2001.
Many observers are still hesitant when it comes to Hilton. Of 14 analysts polled by Zack's Investment Research, six of them -- or nearly half -- have the equivalent of a "hold" rating on the stock.
Before Hilton, Bollenbach was senior executive vice president and chief financial officer for Walt Disney, where he was instrumental in the execution of that company’s $19 billion acquisition of ABC/Capital Cities, at the time, the second-largest acquisition in U.S. business history. His pre-Disney resume includes president and CEO of Host Marriott Corporation; CFO for Trump Organization; CFO and board member of Holiday Corporation; chairman and CEO of Southwest Savings and Loan Association.
Much of Bollenbach's training came from legendary business figure D.K. Ludwig. From 1968 to 1980, Bollenbach held a series of financial management positions with the Ludwig Group, including vice president of finance and assistant to the chief operating officer.
Bollenbach is a director of Hilton Hotels and chairman of Park Place Entertainment Corporation. He sits on the boards of Catellus, AOL Time Warner and Hilton Group PLC, the parent company of Hilton International, owner of the Hilton name outside the United States. Bollenbach is a member of the Los Angeles Business Advisors & The Los Angeles World Affairs Council.
A native of Southern California, Bollenbach holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of California at Los Angeles and a master’s degree in management from California State University, Northridge.
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Ned Riley
Chief investment strategist, global active equity
State Street Global Advisors
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Riley develops active fundamental investment policy for State Street Global Advisors clients that are funds or rich individuals, and often appears as a commentator on financial news programs.
Before State Street hired Riley in 2000, he was BankBoston's chief investment officer, where he oversaw investment policy for $32 billion in assets under management, and was responsible for a staff of more than 100 people. Riley was also a member of BankBoston's Investment Management Committee. He managed the Boston 1784 Funds, with $10 billion in assets. While at BankBoston, Riley was president and operating officer of Eagle Investment Associates, a financial counseling firm for rich people and small institutions.
Riley has worked in the investment management field since 1967. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from Providence College.
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