Saturday, December 3, 2011

The First Madison-area Marquette AIM Program ‘Road Show’ Was a Resounding Success

On a beautiful fall day, the AIM program headed west from Milwaukee to visit Madison, Wisconsin. Four AIM students, Dr. David Krause, and Charles Ries of Marquette University made the drive to American Family Insurance in Madison to present their most recent set of stock recommendations. 

Dr. Krause, AIM program director said, “Friday’s visit to American Family is precisely why we take our students on the road to pitch stocks. We had an opportunity to meet and interact with eight investment professionals in their work setting, plus we were able to present before a group of aspiring middle and high school students interested in finance. I don’t think that the day could have gone any better. It was a resounding success.”

Dr. Krause continued, “We’d especially like to thank Richard White and Peter Gunder of American Family for allowing the AIM students and the Madison "Millionaires Club" to visit their amazing facility. Without a doubt we want to return each year with the newest class of AIM students. The professionals at American Family were exactly what we want from our audience during a road show. They asked direct and insightful questions – plus they were able to help with useful pointers about how the students could improve their analysis. It was a great learning environment.”

To access the December 2nd presentations delivered to the professionals at American Family Insurance in Madison, follow the link for the current equity write-ups: Link to student write-up (pdf).   If you want to access all of the past student stock write-ups since the inception of the AIM program in 2005, follow this url: Link to View all past student write-ups 

The AIM students presented the following stocks:
  •          Patrick Keeley - Cloud Peak Energy, Inc. (CLD)
  •          Kaili Wang - Autodesk, Inc. (ADSK)
  •         Harrison Davis - Vanguard Health Systems (VHS)
  •         Jonathan Schwerin - Johnson Outdoors Inc. (JOUT)

This concludes our AIM road shows for the fall semester. The American Family presentation was the 8th off-campus location and the 10th set of presentations during the semester. Krause said, "We’ll be back next semester with six road shows and three sets of presentations in the AIM Room on Marquette’s campus. The new AIM students in the Class of 2013 will make their first public presentations in April 2012. The full Spring 2012 presentation schedule will be published soon and will likely include road trips to Geneva Capital, 1492, R.W. Baird, and other Milwaukee area investment firms. Additionally, a Chicago road trip is in the works for early March 2012."

As mentioned above, “The Millionaires Club” also attended the AIM presentations at American Family on Friday, December 2. The Millionaires Club is an after-school and evening program for high-school and middle-school members that introduces students to financial ideas and trains them in the practical money management skills of setting financial goals, budgeting, saving and investing.  Asset Builders of America sponsors this very important program. In addition to this substantive education, the Millionaires Club also increases its members’ human capital by teaching self-respect, assertiveness, excellence, and professionalism.

Asset Builders of America’s mission is to promote financial education and wealth-building strategies to enhance the quality of life of low-income youth, families, and communities.  To accomplish this they have created various programs including the Millionaires Club.

Robert Wynn, a Madison-based financial professional, organized the Millionaires Club visit to American Family. Bob has over twenty five years of experience in business and economic development – and he has a successful history of developing and promoting public policy initiatives that provide business development and financing resources to emerging businesses. Wynn is the founder and president of Asset Builders of America Inc. which is a financial education and wealth building nonprofit corporation that has developed a range of education and wealth building initiatives focusing on the challenging urban and youth populations. Mr. Wynn has been a prolific promoter of investment education and he is a national leader in the financial services industry.

Dr. Krause said, “It was great that Bob Wynn brought the students in the Millionaires Club to American Family for the AIM presentations. The kids asked great questions and we thoroughly enjoyed meeting and talking with them about investing. Thanks to Bob Wynn for organizing the Millionaires Club visit and for American Family warmly greeting and hosting all of us.”

The students in the Millionaires Club who attended the event were:
  •          James Blilie - 8th Grade
  •          T'Lovius Comer - 8th Grade
  •          Lauren Tatus - 9th Grade
  •         Joaquin Lara - 9th Grade