Fall 2011 Marquette University NYC Financial Management Association Trip

From October 19-22, Dr. David Krause (Marquette’s AIM program director) led 22 Marquette students to New York City for the annual Financial Management Association trip. The students traveling to NYC included sophomores, juniors and seniors – in addition to Brady Endl, Dr. Krause’s graduate assistant.

After arriving at LaGuardia, the students taxied to mid-town Manhattan where they checked into their hotel and briefly explored the area…. 

After a quick slice of pizza for lunch and then braving some gusty rain showers the group toured Bloomberg at 59^th and Lexington. The modern building and high tech nature of the business got the trip off to a good start.....

The finance students then visited Morgan Stanley at Times Square where they had the opportunity to meet and interact with six Marquette alumni.

The highlight of the visit to Morgan Stanley was an opportunity to meet with Jim Runde for nearly an hour. The students had an interesting dialogue about current financial and global events with Mr. Runde and the other alumni.

The students then toured mid-town NYC with Dr. Krause during the evening – visiting venerable NYC sites such as Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building, the UN, Times Square, Central Park, Rockefeller Plaza, etc. For many, this was their first visit to the City.

The next morning started early with a subway ride to Wall Street - followed by meetings at Susquahanna, Royal Bank of Canada, and Deutsche Bank (all in lower Manhattan). 

The Marquette alumni at these firms provided the students with some unique opportunities - including visits to their trading floors, special speakers, and meetings with campus recruiters. 

The students had a very interesting day visiting various investment firms in the Wall Street area - and also had a chance to visit the 911 site, Battery Park, the New York Stock Exchange, and the Occupy Wall Street site.

 




The opportunity to spend a full day in lower Manhattan was enjoyed by the students as they had a chance to explore the area on their own during the noon hour. The streets were especially exciting with a large police presence, German and French tourists, and the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Next up was a crowded subway trip back to mid-town for the 'big event'  - which was an evening cocktail party that included the NYC-based Marquette alumni. The  reception was held at JP Morgan on Madison Avenue. 

The event attracted over 35 alumni and allowed an excellent networking opportunity for the FMA students. Special thanks go to Gerry Madigan and his colleagues at JPM for hosting the event. 

The next morning included an early arrival at BNP-Paribas where breakfast and a presentation were provided to the students. Similar to last year's visit, the BNP session was extremely useful for the students. 


BNP professionals from the various functional areas within the firm talked about different financial topics. A special thank you goes to Rick Broeren and his colleagues for an outstanding morning visit.



No trip to Manhattan would be complete without a subway delay which caused the students to have to  taxi their way to Citigroup's Tribeca location; where Dan Williams, Sue Harnett, and the other Marquette Citigroup alumni had planned a presentation. Arriving with little time to spare, the students were able to hear from Suni Hartford, Head of North American Trading. The students were impressed with Suni's amazing public speaking abilities and they also had an opportunity to hear from personnel in campus recruiting.

After the Citigroup visit it was back to mid-town for the final session of the trip at JP Morgan. Ryan Loftus, Caitlin Gerdes, and Christina Starkey hosted a session at JPM that again enabled the students to learn about internship and career opportunities. It was a good ending to a busy three days in Manhattan.





By late Friday afternoon the students were ready to explore the city on their own.... and most went their own way to visit with friends, eat in Hell's Kitchen, or view the cityscape from 30Rock or the Empire State Building. 

The next morning was sunny and warm which allowed the students the ability to travel to Ellis Island, Brooklyn, Greenwich Village, Central Park, or go shopping on Park Avenue or Times Square. 




The trip was exhausting, but again it was a major success. Thanks to everyone involved for putting together another outstanding Marquette FMA NYC trip!