Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Nicholas Center Blog
Friday, October 14th was the second and final day of the annual Board of Advisors meeting for the Nicholas Center for Corporate Finance and Investment Banking. The day got started early with a classic Grainger Hall continental breakfast. The first speaker of the day (Doug Baird, Chairman of the Equity Capital Markets for the Americas, Citigroup) was broadcast to us live straight from New York City. It was great to receive firsthand insight about the current state of the equity markets along with some humorous anecdotes about the Wall Street protesters. Doug really emphasized the importance of not being afraid to get "internationalized" early and quickly in your career.
After the web conference with Doug, we were privileged to hear from an experienced panel of professionals who constantly deal with the fluctuations in the financial markets. The panel included Gary Cole (Antares Intl. Partners Inc.), Dennis Duerst (3M), Patrick Hammes (Robert W. Baird), and Roberto Morales (Adage Capital). Terry Maxwell (Robert W. Baird) moderated the discussion. An overarching theme of the discussion pointed out how unpredictable and volatile the market has become recently. Managers must have a comfort level with making decisions without having every piece of detail necessary. First of all, there will always be uncertainty. Secondly, if you wait to get all the information, someone else will beat you to the opportunity.
Following the panel discussion, two MBA student teams were able to present the current state of their applied corporate finance projects for Qualcomm and 3M. The Board provided valuable insight and feedback, which certainly helped sharpen the presentations and analysis.
A second panel discussion which related more specifically to corporate finance was then moderated by Bruce Cohen. The distinguished panel participants were Barb Bolens (Quad Graphics), Kirk Geadelmann (Best Buy), Bill Keitel (Qualcomm), Andy Olen (Abbot t Vascular), and Jeff Yurcisin (Shopbop). It was encouraging to hear of so many opportunities for success in certain niches of the economy. The panel counseled students to be bold throughout their future careers and to frequently voice their opinions, even when their opinions are not popular.
Overall, the Board of Advisors meeting provided great exposure for the current students to interact with successful and experienced professionals. The advice and perspectives that were shared definitely benefitted all the students in attendance.