Smith Undergrads Experience Barron’s Roundtable

For the past six years, undergraduate students from adjunct professor Joe Rinaldi’s Futures, Options and Derivatives class at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business have attended the Barron’s Roundtable to meet some of the top investors in the country. 

This year, four students, led by Rinaldi, attended the conference titled “The Art Of Successful Investing” on Oct. 22, 2014 at the Metropolitan Club in New York. 

The students heard from and networked with such investment industry leaders as Ed Finn, senior editor and president, Barron’s; Scott Black, founder, Delphi Management;  Felix Zulauf, founding partner, Zulauf Asset Management; Ross Margolies, founder and portfolio manager, Stelliam Investment Management LP; Bill Priest, CEO and CIO of Epoch Investment Partners; Thomas Luddy, chief global strategist and head of Global Market Insights, J.P Morgan; Oscar Schafer, partner, O.S.S. Capital Management LP; Scott Minerd, chairman of investments and global CIO, Guggenheim; Meryl Witmer, general partner, Eagle Capital Partners; Marc Faber, managing director, Marc Faber Ltd. 

“Speaking to such luminaries is simply inspirational,” said Smith undergrad Daniel Yanushevsky, who is studying finance, economics and business analytics. “Their thought processes and drive truly spreads.

As a student, you feel an extra push to achieve your goals. 

The other Smith student participants were finance majors Maria Mesa, Chris Yoder and Pavan Rangachar. 

The trip to Barron’s is among the popular experiential learning opportunities for Smith undergraduate finance students. The program is highly competitive. Minimum selection criteria include a 3.6 GPA and relevant professional experience in the financial industry.

Upon returning, the students produced a white paper to share insight from the roundtable. 

“Aside from speaking with the presenters, it was equally valuable speaking to different members of the audience,” said Yanushevsky, who also serves as a teaching assistant for the course Statistical Models in Business. “Each of us will someday hold investments of some sort, and as a business student it is important to have an understanding of them and how one should effectively manage them.” 

The participating students are opening their Barron’s connections with their other classmates by pooling business cards they collected from willing investors at the event into a database. This database will serve as a class resource for professional connections which may lead to internships and full-time positions. 

“This year the President of Barron’s, Mr. Finn, mentioned the students, their achievements, why they were picked, and thanked the Robert H. Smith School of Business for the ‘wonderful strategic and academic alliance that we have developed with Barron’s,’” said Rinaldi. “It’s truly a win for the university, Barron’s and the students.”