Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Marquette Finance Students Visited J.P. Morgan During Their New York Trip

During their annual fall trip to New York, 28 students and Dr. David Krause, AIM program director, had the opportunity to visit JP Morgan. Thanks to the efforts of Marquette alumni, Ryan Loftus and Caitlin Gerdes, the finance students were able to meet with three J.P. Morgan professionals. Throughout the country, numerous Marquette alumni are working for JPM.
Ryan Loftus (MU ’00), an Executive Director in JPM’s Financial Institutions Group / Corporate Finance Advisory, talked about his role within the investment banking function. Ryan gave the students an appreciation of the traits and skill sets required to succeed in investment banking on Wall Street. He answered student questions and gave them his views about the current trends within the financial services industry.  

The next JPM presenter was Megan McClellan. She is a Vice President in J.P. Morgan’s Private Wealth Management Group and specializes in fixed income investments. Megan previously worked in the area of mortgage-backed securities in the sales & trading function. She gave the students an appreciation of the role of the asset management specialist in PWM. The students had an interesting dialogue with Ms. McClellan following her presentation.

The last presenter was Jeremiah Norton, who works with Ryan Loftus in investment banking at J.P. Morgan. Prior to joining JPM, he served at the U.S. Treasury Department under Secretary Henry Paulson during the financial crisis of 2007-08. Jeremiah’s role at Treasury provided some very interesting dialogue with the students - many of whom had read Andrew Sorkin’s book, Too Big To Fail. Following Mr. Norton’s presentation the students had an opportunity to visit the former Bear Sterns board room where many historic decisions were made during the financial crisis.
Dr. David Krause said, “The visit to J.P. Morgan was an opportunity to meet with three very interesting and experienced financial professionals. I know that the students on the New York trip enjoyed hearing the ‘day in the life of an investment banker’ stories when they talked with Ryan. Meg provided some interesting perspectives about the role of a fixed income specialist in the private wealth management functional area. And Jeremiah’s stories about the financial crisis kept the students in rapture – it was an insider’s view of the events surrounding the final days of Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers that few people have heard. It was a great visit and we are thankful for the opportunity to visit JPM.”