Mark Fedenia is Atlatl's Director of Investments. He has been on the finance faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1986, and he brings that academic depth, along with decades of hands-on portfolio management, to the firm's investment process.
Mark is the Baird Professor of Finance at the Wisconsin School of Business, where he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Finance, Investment and Banking and Academic Executive Director of the Hawk Center for Investment Analysis. He founded and directs the University of Wisconsin's Wealth Management and Financial Planning Program, first offered in fall 2014 in partnership with Robert W. Baird, and he is an Associate Editor of the Financial Planning Review. His research and teaching focus on investment management, wealth management and financial planning.
For 21 years, Mark directed the UW-Madison Applied Security Analysis Program, in which students manage equity and fixed income portfolios for the UW-Madison Foundation and the UW System. He was also a long-tenured consultant to the UW System, selecting outside investment managers and writing investment policies. From 1998 to 2012 he worked at Nakoma Capital Management, where he became a principal and portfolio manager and co-managed an alternative asset portfolio, a fund of funds and a long-short equity fund.
Mark earned his Ph.D., M.S. and B.S. in finance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Selected research
- Fedenia, Skiba and Sokolyk, "Concentration in mutual fund equity holdings during global economic crises," International Review of Financial Analysis, 2025
- Fedenia, Ronen and Nam, "Machine learning and trade direction classification: insights from the corporate bond market," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, 2024
- Choi, Fedenia, Skiba and Sokolyk, "Portfolio concentration and performance of institutional investors worldwide," Journal of Financial Economics, 2017
- Beracha, Fedenia and Skiba, "Culture's impact on institutional investors' trading frequency," International Review of Financial Analysis, 2014
- Fedenia, Shafer and Skiba, "Information immobility, industry concentration, and institutional investors' performance," Journal of Banking and Finance, 2013
- Anderson, Fedenia, Hirschey and Skiba, "Cultural influences on home bias and international diversification by institutional investors," Journal of Banking and Finance, 2011
Credentials and background
- Ph.D., M.S. and B.S. in finance, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Baird Professor of Finance, Wisconsin School of Business
- Academic Executive Director, Hawk Center for Investment Analysis
- Founder and director, UW Wealth Management and Financial Planning Program
- Associate Editor, Financial Planning Review
- Principal and portfolio manager, Nakoma Capital Management (1998 to 2012)
- Wisconsin School of Business faculty profile
- SEC record (IAPD), CRD 4655515