John Hailer professional background is a little unusual for the finance industry. His background is in medical sales, where he sold pharmaceuticals to doctors. As you can imagine, this required a lot of people skills – something John has greatly honed over the years. In addition to his work in finance, John began his own human resources firm in 2008 and also launched a widely successful Amazon business at the same time.

In his most recent position, the managing director of a private wealth management firm, John oversees investments for high net worth individuals. He is not a day trader, so he has a unique perspective on the market. He has seen both up and down markets and believes that we are in an up cycle right now – although he will admit there are risks to this view.

John Hailer own personal investment strategy is simple: buy undervalued companies with exceptional management teams. He looks for companies that have been beaten down to ridiculous prices – so low that they are selling at a discount to intrinsic value. He has seen the market go up and down several times, but he remains optimistic and believes that a good company will always be a good company.

John Hailer investment philosophy has paid off well for him – not in one particular stock or holding, but overall on his portfolio. As an investor who preaches diversification, we asked John if he had any regrets about not being diversified himself.”

Natixis is an undervalued bank in France. It started to rebound – and I was sitting on a lot of cash at the time. I could have bought it in early 2012 or late 2011, but I didn’t see any value so I stayed away from it.

The Natixis bank’s story is really interesting – it went from being a private bank to a public bank. It has a management team that I really admire and a business model that is very diversified. I believe the banking industry in France is going through transformational change, and Natixis has been at the center of this shift. The growth potential for this bank is enormous, but people have been scared away because it’s an unknown quantity at this point.