In this event, Himal Agarwal, the Chief Financial Officer at Braviant Holdings (a leading provider of tech-enabled credit products and services for underbanked consumers), spoke about his experience at Braviant Holdings. He provided insight into the problem of non-prime clients having low credit access and how other lending companies might evolve over the next few years. He provided an overview of the use of technology in lending credit to consumers, and shared what a typical day at work looks like. 

JEC members were able to gain some amazing insight into the world of sports economics from Allen Sanderson, senior instructional professor in economics at the University of Chicago. He provided an overview of the economic principles used in sports, and discussed his research into sports economics. In addition, he described specific events and past scenarios in professional sports where economics are extremely useful.

In this event, Andrew Wong, Managing Principal and Economic Consultant at Analysis Group, one of the largest international economic and financial consulting firms, shared his expertise on numerous financial topics including bankruptcy & insolvency, financial statement analysis, and market manipulation. He spoke about his work as an economic consultant, discussed his experience providing testimony in government regulatory investigations, and provided an overview of some of the financial instruments he works with. Dr. Wong recounted Analysis Group’s work - specifically, with regard to the applications of economics in settings such as phone design or sports. He also offered advice for those looking to follow a similar career path.

Recording of the September 18th Virtual Open House

Recording of the September 18th Virtual Open House

In this event, Scott Masten, professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan, provided an overview of transaction cost theory and talked about his research on transaction costs. Professor Masten elaborated on the origins behind transaction cost theory and shed light on its recent advancements. He spoke about how transaction cost theory is applied in many industries such as airlines and fast food production. Professor Masten also touched on how transaction cost theory plays a role in some of his other research including law, economics, and organization - specifically with regard to contracting, vertical integration, and antitrust legislation. 

On August 21, Mr. Dan Leib, the Chief Executive Officer of Donnelley Financial Solutions (DFIN), presented to JEC. DFIN is a leader in financial risk and regulatory compliance solutions. Mr. Leib spoke about his role in leading DFIN to success, how a CEO must balance the views of employees, clients, & investors, and provided advice to the attendees for their futures. Mr. Leib shed light on DFIN’s origins from predecessor company R. R. Donnelley, and shared his views on the challenges and opportunities in the financial reporting industry. Overall, he gave a very insightful presentation that will definitely prove useful in the future.

In this event, Amy Shelly, the Chief Financial Officer of Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), spoke about her work for OCC. OCC is the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization. By acting as guarantor, OCC ensures that the obligations of the contracts it clears are fulfilled. Ms. Shelly spoke about her work in corporate finance, her experience overseeing financial functions at other institutions, and provided advice to the attendees for their futures. Ms. Shelly reviewed the role of OCC in the financial markets and shared her views on the challenges and opportunities in the financial services industry. 

In this event, Brown alumni spoke on their experience at Brown, and shed light on its open curriculum and student life, as well as their careers after college.

In this event, Steven Cunningham, Chief Financial Officer at Enova, talked about his work at Enova (a leading financial technology company that provides access to fast, trustworthy credit through world-class analytics and technology) and his experience elsewhere in finance. He shared his thoughts on the current conditions and future prospects of the financial technology industry, and provided advice for those looking to follow a similar career path.

In this event, Mark Witte, professor of economics at Northwestern, presented on environmental economics. Professor Witte talked about how economics can be utilized as a tool to solve environmental issues and reviewed some of the notable events in the history of environmental economics. Professor Witte also provided insight into the value of carbon taxes through the lens of game theory, allowing JEC members to better understand economics in relation to human behavior. After Professor Witte’s presentation, there was a Q&A covering his road to environmental economics, his opinion on its future, and more.

The Junior Economic Club’s Spring International Forum took place on Sunday, June 13th. In this three hour-long virtual event, 150+ high school students from around the world engaged with and learned from industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and young professionals. JEC members came from chapters in Chicago, Berlin, Toronto, NYC, Nashville, and more.

The event opened with keynote speaker Tom Sherwood, Head of Business Development at Magnetar Capital, who, in the context of his personal career experience, offered attendees insight into the guiding principles and values crucial to furthering their personal and professional journeys. Following a brief set of breakout rooms, members then heard from entrepreneur Mudit Rawat, Chief Revenue Officer of Planet Corp, who spoke on the value of innovation and, in an extended Q&A, shared his thoughts on the skills crucial for success in entrepreneurship. After another round of breakout rooms, this time with several young professionals in banking and tech, the event concluded with an inspiring presentation from Nan J. Morrison, President and CEO of the national Council for Economic Education, who spoke on the importance of following one’s passions and taking advantage of opportunities.

Jay Townsend, founder of North Shore Vibe, will discuss the ideation process behind businesses. Through his own experience in social entrepreneurship, he will explore problem-solving methods, how to execute business ideas, and finding your passions and harnessing them.

Interested in learning more about the college application process? Come listen to Lizzy Brahin (Harvard '25), Joey Cumpian (Yale '25), and Sandra Martinez (Brown '25) share advice surrounding the process and what they believe helped them along the way.

Join Future Founders and JEC on Friday, May 21st at 5pm CDT for the 3rd event in the Impact in Social Entrepreneurship Series with Tina Hrabak, Director of Startups at Future Founders. Tina Hrabak will discuss the process of building various types of pitches for entrepreneurial ventures and other opportunities. Ideas won't get anywhere if you don't know how to talk about them.

Are you interested in pursuing a career in finance? If so, join us with Adam Link, Director of Institutional Equity Sales at Wells Fargo. Mr. Link will go over the growing equity sales/trading industry, and he will explore both the buy-side (where equities are bought by private equity funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, etc.) and the work he does on the sell-side (where equities are created, promoted, and sold to the aforementioned institutions). He will discuss what a career in equity sales/trading looks like and share his advice for planning and pursuing one.

Dilara Sayeed, CEO of vPeer, will discuss her personal journey in the social entrepreneurship world and how her mentoring platform has grown. Following an interactive presentation, there will be a Q&A in which participants can inquire about anything related to the topics discussed.

Dilara’s very first memories are of being a kid at Head Start Preschool for low-income families and Chicago Public Schools. From Head Start to Harvard, from teaching to senior leadership, and from non-profits to large corporations, Dilara’s experiences fuel her belief that success in career and life comes with access to education, resources, and great mentors that help us get there. She founded vPeer to pay it forward.

When Dilara is not working on refining the vPeer experience, she runs on roadways and kayaks on waterways – to explore our world and meet its amazing people.

In this webinar, Pankaj Parashar, Co-Founder of Purple Ant, discussed market research for startups and advice for entering the startup world. Following an interactive presentation, there was a Q&A in which participants inquired about anything related to the topics discussed.

Pankaj has 20+ years of experience working at the intersection of Technology and Insurance . As an IT Service Provider Executive, he has seen at close hand the business problems faced by Industry and has led teams to provide solutions using Technology. With Insurtech now becoming mainstream, he wants to use his rich experience to accelerate the adoption and implementation of these technologies in solving real challenges.

Using IoT and AI, Purple Ant enables insurance companies to improve both retention and loss prevention for their customers. Purple Ant is a platform that can ingest, normalize, aggregate, and integrate any type of sensor data with key devices/technologies pre-integrated into the platform offering.

On March 20, 2021, Anke Liu of Stellar Development Foundation, an organization that works in digital transactions, presented at a JEC event. Liu is the Community and Events Manager at Stellar, discussed digital finance, its development, and its application to the financial world.

Stellar

When explaining Stellar, Liu started with a simple explanation of ledgers, the basic idea of a sheet that keeps track of digital transactions. Stellar is able to make united ledgers available to many users in different places all at once. They also use a data chain called Blockchain that is more nuanced than a centralized database because it has multiple main databases that allow for a better connection between users. Liu explained the advanced way of using ledgers that allows them to be organized in a way that helps them be accessed by a wide audience of users.

In this webinar, Ed Wehmer, CEO of Wintrust, talked about the banking industry, examining its current condition and future trends to be aware of. In addition, he went over his work at Wintrust and explained the most important skills for success in the banking industry. Following this, there was a Q&A session where members were able to ask questions.

Learn more about this event here.

On March 27, 2021, The Junior Economic Club hosted the third of many Diversity and Inclusion events, it focused on gender diversity and the speaker was Seema Hingorani. Hingorani is the Managing Director at Morgan Stanley Investment Management and the Founder and Chair of Girls Who Invest, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the number of women in portfolio management and executive leadership in the asset management industry. After Hingorani spoke, attendees split into breakout rooms to discuss Hingorani’s presentation and gender diversity. At the event, the JEC organized an opportunity to recognize and think about the recent attacks on AAPI people, which they did by giving a statement at the beginning of the event and then hosting discussions in the aforementioned breakout rooms.

Learn more about this event here.

On March 20, 2021, Bret Blanton discussed his experiences, career, and navigating the financial markets. He unpacked what a career in trading looks like and shared his thoughts on the current market environment. Blanton is currently the Director of Foreign Exchange Trading and BMO Capital Markets and he has foreign experience. He began by giving a presentation and then moved into a Q&A session where he answered questions surrounding current events in financial markets and advice for students interested in working in the financial markets.

Learn more about the event here.