BERWYN, Pa., January 12, 2010 -- Louise Hertzog, program trader, is the recipient of the first annual Platinum Mission Award at Turner Investment Partners, an employee-owned investment firm. The award honors the employee who best exemplifies the principles of Turner’s Our Mission statement on and off the job.

Ms. Hertzog, a resident of Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, was one of eight nominees for the Platinum Mission Award and was selected by a vote of Turner employees, who currently number 127.

The Platinum Mission Award is designed to encourage employees to live up to the nine principles of conduct articulated in Turner’s mission statement and recognize those employees who do so in an exceptional way. The award will be given annually to one of the employees who in that year has received a preliminary award, the Mission Award, presented in honor of individual achievements that reflect the mission statement in action.

Ms. Hertzog’s performance on the job and her charitable efforts, among other things, were cited as demonstrations of certain principles of Turner’s mission statement, which was written by Bob Turner, chairman and chief investment officer, when the firm was founded in 1990.

For instance, the mission statement commits employees "to activism to see the communities and societies in which we live prosper." For her part, over the past three years, Ms. Hertzog has transported leftovers from catered lunches at work to the Daughters of Charity of Norristown, Pennsylvania, a religious order that feeds the homeless. She also volunteers at the New Covenant Church in Trappe, Pennsylvania. "Louise always thinks about those who have the least, so she does things like bring food to the hungry," said Joann Judge, associate, distribution and client service. "I think Louise best exemplifies the mission-statement principle of employees giving back to the community."

Also, her superior performance as a program trader on Turner’s Equity Trading Team reflects an adherence to the mission statement principle of "providing the highest level of client service." As Melissa Hinmon, senior equity trader, noted, Louise "has a knack for working with people in other departments at Turner to do each task well and in the process helps make the departments better -- whether the task involves running a report for Client Service, setting up a stock trade, sending out program trades, or keeping trading commissions up to date. And everything is done with precision and promptness."

Ms. Hertzog is a principal of the firm, which manages more than $17 billion in stocks in alternative, core, growth, international, quantitative, and value portfolios on behalf of institutions and individuals, as of December 31, 2009. She joined Turner in 2003. She earned an associate’s degree at Montgomery County Community College in 1971.

The other nominees for the Platinum Mission Award were these seven Mission Award winners:

• Robert Amweg, chief accounting officer and a resident of Yardley, Pennsylvania;
  
• Carola Frantzen, executive assistant, who lives in Hebron, Connecticut;
  
• Melissa Hinmon, senior equity trader and a resident of Berwyn, Pennsylvania;
  
• Chris Holmes, associate, mutual-fund administration and compliance, who lives in Malvern, Pennsylvania;
  
• Daniel McManus, director of equity trading and a resident of Jamison, Pennsylvania;
  
• Thomas Trala, chief operating and financial officer, who lives in Malvern; and
  
• Mark Turner, president and senior portfolio manager/security analyst, who lives in Berwyn.