Located on the intriguingly-named Ice Cream Drive in North Aurora, Illinois is Oberweis Asset Management. The boutique mutual fund shop will soon be welcoming Brian Lee to head up its institutional marketing position, James Oberweis, head of the firm, told the MutualFundWire.com.

Oberweis sees a great deal of potential for his firm right now. Oberweis Asset Management focuses on the small cap growth niche. "This is a good period for small cap growth, and we are looking at what we believe will be a growth period," Oberweis contended.

"In many ways, our current economic environment is similar to that of the late 1970's. During that time, we were just coming our of recession. This was a boom time for small growth stocks, while large cap remained on a relative plateau. And now, we have a generally lower interest rate environment. We are also in a period of lower taxes. Both lower interest rates and lower taxes have been good for the small growth portfolio," the executive continued.

Oberweis manages an emerging growth fund (OBEGX), a micro-cap fund (OBMCX), and a mid-cap fund (OBMDX). Despite Oberweis's arguments, the firm will have to overcome a three rating for its emerging growth fund from Morningstar and an assessment that argues that the fund is "volatile". Nonetheless, if Oberweis's analysis is correct, the recent shifts in the economy could make the fund more inviting to investors.

In the fourth quarter of last year, Oberweis was profiled by Business Week, and the firm's funds were added to the GoldK platform for 401(k) plans. 

See the list of all the 2002 Most Influential People



Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE