Mary Ellen Stanek Named Nominee for 2020 Morningstar Outstanding Portfolio Manager Award

MILWAUKEE, June 15, 2020 –Employee-owned Baird announced today that Mary Ellen Stanek, CFA,  is a nominee for the 2020 U.S. Morningstar Awards for Investing Excellence in the Outstanding Portfolio Manager category for the second straight year; there are five nominees in this category. Stanek is being recognized as the Chief Investment Officer of the team that manages the Baird Core Plus Bond (BCOIX) and Baird Aggregate Bond (BAGIX) Funds, among others.

The Morningstar Awards for Investing Excellence recognize portfolio managers, asset-management firms, and up-and-coming managers that demonstrate excellent investment skill, the courage to differ from the consensus to benefit investors, and an alignment of interests with strategies’ investors. Winners are chosen based on research and in-depth qualitative evaluation by Morningstar’s manager research group. The winners will be announced on CNBC, the week of June 22, 2020. Morningstar’s methodology is available here.

Baird Advisors is known for managing high-quality bond portfolios using a duration neutral approach. In a recent article, Morningstar described this approach: "The strategy's risk-aware approach has kept it from major missteps over its long life, and the disciplined approach has contributed to its institutional share class' 4.7% annualized gain over the trailing 15 years ended May 20, 2020--topping nearly 80% of peers and the Aggregate Index in the process."

"Being recognized for a second time in two years is extraordinary," said Steve Booth, Baird’s President and Chief Executive Officer. "Mary Ellen and her team have remained dedicated to their successful approach for more than 20 years at Baird and many years before that. It is that consistent dedication that has helped their clients navigate all kinds of markets, especially the one we experienced this year."

"Our entire team is humbled to be recognized again and to be among this distinguished group of investment professionals," said Mary Ellen Stanek, Chief Investment Officer and Senior Portfolio Manager. "We're proud to do this work and serve the clients who entrusted our team to manage their assets and have been with us year after year."

About Baird Funds

Baird Funds is a no-load mutual fund family with more than $71.6 billion in assets as of May 31, 2020. The Baird Funds offer proven track records and a variety of portfolios spanning fixed income and equity asset classes. The ten bond funds and six stock funds feature competitive fees and are managed with a careful focus on risk control. For more information, visit www.bairdfunds.com.

About Baird

Putting clients first since 1919, Baird is an employee-owned, international wealth management, asset management, investment banking/capital markets, and private equity firm with offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Baird has approximately 4,600 associates serving the needs of individual, corporate, institutional and municipal clients and more than $305 billion in client assets as of December 31, 2019. Committed to being a great workplace, Baird ranked No. 13 on the 2020 FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® list. Baird is the marketing name of Baird Financial Group. Baird’s principal operating subsidiaries are Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated in the United States and Robert W. Baird Group Ltd. in Europe. Baird also has an operating subsidiary in Asia supporting Baird’s investment banking and private equity operations. For more information, please visit Baird’s website at www.rwbaird.com.

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Performance data represents past performance and does not guarantee future results.  The investment return and principal value of the investment will fluctuate so that shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance data may be lower or higher than the data quoted.  For performance data to the most recent month end, contact Baird directly at 866-442-2473 or www.bairdassetmanagement.com/baird-funds

Some of the potential risks associated with fixed income investments include call risk, reinvestment risk, interest rate risk, credit risk, default risk, liquidity risk and inflation risk. Additionally, it is important that an investor is familiar with the inverse relationship between a bond’s price and its yield. Bond prices will fall as interest rates rise and vice versa.

Morningstar's Manager Research Group consists of various wholly owned subsidiaries of Morningstar, Inc. including, but not limited to, Morningstar Research Services LLC. Analyst Ratings are subjective in nature and should not be used as the sole basis for investment decisions. Analyst Ratings are based on Morningstar's Manager Research Group's current expectations about future events and therefore involve unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause such expectations not to occur or to differ significantly from what was expected. Analyst Ratings are not guarantees nor should they be viewed as an assessment of a fund's or separately managed account's underlying securities' creditworthiness. This press release is for informational purposes only; references to securities or a separately managed account investment strategy in this press release should not be considered an offer or solicitation to buy or sell the securities or to invest in accordance with that strategy.

Nomination awarded to Mary Ellen Stanek for the 2020 U.S. Morningstar Awards for Investing Excellence.