Letter from the Director
Hello Nicholas Center community and friends,
Happy New Year! We hope your January is off to a great start. We begin our Spring semester this week and before we know it, we’ll be celebrating graduation with our Class of 2024 CFIB students! We’re excited to share in this newsletter a fall semester recap, upcoming news and events for the Nicholas Center, as well as Student, Alumni and Advisory Board spotlights!
I’ve been Director of the Nicholas Center for eight months now and have thoroughly enjoyed taking on this new role which has allowed me to make a more direct impact on the Wisconsin School of Business, the Center and our students. As many of you know, I served on the Nicholas Center Advisory Board for over 15 years while working in executive leadership roles for a number of publicly traded companies. My roles spanned different areas of finance like corporate strategy, treasury, and investor relations, as well as early career positions in marketing and sales. I’m grateful to be working alongside Andrea Sorenson, Assistant Director, who joined the Nicholas Center in August. We are both excited to begin implementing our new strategy, which will support growing our enrollment and better preparing our students for careers in finance.
Many thanks to all of you who have supported the Nicholas Center in the past and continue to do so. We appreciate the many ways our Alumni, Board, and friends of the Nicholas Center support and help make our program great.
On, Wisconsin!
Barb
Fall Semester Recap
Class of 2025 CFIB Students Begin Their Journey
In August, we welcomed 12 first year CFIB MBA students and are thrilled that together, our Class of 2024 & 2025 is comprised of 16 students. Our first-year students are working hard to secure their internships and full-time positions. We encourage you to click on the resume books below to review the student profiles that are available for internships or full-time roles. If you have a position that would be well suited for our Finance MBA’s, please contact us so we can also share with students.
Advisory Board & Alumni Meeting
This past October, we gathered for our Fall 2023 Advisory Board meeting, which was themed, Celebrating the Past…Accelerating Forward. Dean Samba shared the progress we’ve made on Roadmap 2025, the five-year strategic plan of WSB, and as a Board, we further discussed the strategic direction of the Nicholas Center. We welcomed new Board member Jenny Kray, CFO of Ashling Partners and were thrilled that several Alumni returned to be part of the events and reunion.
Advisory Board members participated in a corporate panel, represented by Joe Cruse (Director of Finance, Amazon), Aaron Holt (CFO, Hoffmaster Group) John Hulbert (Vice President of Investor Relations, Target), and Heather Pahl (Global Supply Chain Finance, Harley Davidson), and discussed the rapidly changing environment around technology, inflation, and supply chain and the impacts on their finance teams.
An Alumni panel represented by David Hanley (Associate Partner, Senior Director, Innosight) and Hilding Branzell (Senior Director, Duracell), and Tosan Olley (Head of FP&A, Equinix) provided discussion to help our students learn about corporate finance jobs, mentorship, networking, and interviewing.
Don Condon Speaker Series
We announced this past October the renaming of our Speaker Series in honor of the late Don Condon as a lasting memory of the contributions Don made to the Center leadership and most importantly, the students he met along the way. Don was our long-time board member and Executive-in-Residence who passed away in March. The Don Condon Speaker Series features industry guests in the classroom or virtually on a weekly basis. We extend our deepest gratitude to our speakers this past Fall who brought a diverse set of topics: M&A Careers (Rob Kaderavak, Director at Baird – others from the Baird team also joined him – Ebraham Wahba, Jennifer Roeper, Dan Hyszczak, and Tyler Junk), FP&A & Navigating Volatility (Matt Nehls, Sr. Finance Manager, Target), Shareholder Activism & Defense (David Hunker, Managing Director, EY), Corporate Finance & Strategy (Brian Meyer, Director, Enterprise Customer Strategy, Brunswick Corporation.), Capturing Growth & Consulting Strategy (David Hanley, Associate Partner, Sr. Director – Innosight), and Board Governance (Tom Tefft, Retired – SVP, President at Medtronic).
Mock Interviews with Alumni
Several of our Alumni provided current students the opportunity to mock interview in the fall to help students prep for internship interviewing. Alumni joined in-person and virtually and we are thankful for everyone participating in this event. Special thanks to Robert Brothers (Vice President, BMO Commercial Bank), Aisha Hurston (Sr. Strategy Manager, DOW), Todd Bailey (Lead Financial Analyst, American Family Insurance), Ken Woodell (Director of Finance, Generac), Brian Meyer (Director, Enterprise Customer Strategy, Brunswick) and David Stead (Vice President, Investment Banking, BMO Capital Markets).
Student Spotlights
Xander Kessler joins Pfizer’s Finance Rotational Program
Second-year CFIB student Xander Kessler accepted a full-time role with Pfizer in their full-time Finance Rotational program and will relocate to New York City this summer. He will complete four six-month rotations in different areas of finance. Read more about Xander’s background and career journey!
Mexico City International Trip Perspectives
Earlier this month, first-year students Nick Wong and Connor Mann joined the MBA Program on the International Business Class Trip to Mexico City. The students had an incredible experience. Check out their blog post to read their insights and reflections from the trip! Read the article »
Coming up in 2024
Career Trek to Minneapolis
The Nicholas Center is heading to Minneapolis February 22-23 to visit several area companies. Career treks provide the opportunity for students to engage with finance leaders in the field and gain valuable perspectives to develop their finance skills and learn about careers. We’ll be hosting an Alumni Social on February 22nd from 5:30pm – 8:00pm downtown at CRAVE for any Minneapolis area WSB Alumni in finance.
ACG Cup Case Competition
CFIB students will once again participate in the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Cup case competition, sponsored by Northwestern Mutual. Students will work on teams and present a realistic finance, investment banking, or private equity case study to industry professionals who act as judges. The winning team from WSB will move on to the final round and compete against UW-Milwaukee and Marquette.
Don Condon Speaker Series
This Spring, we will continue our Don Condon Speaker series and we have a terrific schedule of speakers that include topics of: Journey to CFO, Finance & Business Analytics, Finance Business Communication, Treasury Roles & Career Pathways, Intellectual Property, M&A, C-Suite & International Careers Perspectives, and ESG & Investor Relations.
Spring Advisory Board & Alumni Meeting
SAVE THE DATE: On April 19th, we will be hosting a Spring Advisory Board meeting and Alumni Social in Milwaukee, WI. We look forward to gathering with current students, board members, alumni, and friends of the Nicholas Center.
Alumni & Advisory Board Spotlights
We extend our deepest appreciation for two Advisory Board members who sponsored our FIN 850 Applied Corporate Finance class case and consulting projects during the Fall semester. First, Roberto Morales, Portfolio Manager, Adage Capital Management who supported the students in their case work of analyzing the Illumina and GRAIL acquisition. Given such a technical case, Roberto, a life sciences industry expert and portfolio manager, provided guidance, critical insights and perspectives on a weekly basis with students. The students spent the second half of the class working on a consulting project with Tom McDonnell, Vice President of Finance, Allstate, where students analyzed future opportunities in the life insurance market as well as the divestiture of Allstate’s life insurance business to Blackstone and created key deliverables related to Allstate’s post-divestiture transition services agreements.
Two of our second-year students Xander Kessler and Hector Aviles co-authored a blog post that dives deeper into their class reflections learned through these experiences. Read the article »
We are accepting ideas for case studies and requests for consulting projects for Fall 2024. It is never too early to contact us. Contact Barb Bolens to discuss.
Nicholas Center Business Analytics Team
We are grateful to six Alumni who are part of the Nicholas Center Business Analytics team, a group of alumni who lead their respective organizations in business analytics. Together, this group is working with Nicholas Center leadership to advance the CFIB curriculum strategy in business analytics.
The Alumni are:
- Ajay Kumar, Senior Manager, Operations Analytics at Exact Sciences
- Todd Bailey, Lead Financial Analyst at American Family
- Brian Geier, Vice President of Business Intelligence at Recurly
- Ezra Swanson, Business Intelligence and Data Analytics Manager at Modine Manufacturing
- Mary Roberts, Corporate Development, Mergers and Acquisitions at AT&T
- Erin Schmidt, Director, Business Analytics at Molson Coors
Alumni Spotlight – Brian Geier
Last week, the Nicholas Center blog featured CFIB Alumnus Brian Geier’s career journey. Brian graduated in 2014 and is Vice President of Business Intelligence at Recurly, is a software company that manages the subscriptions and billing for over 2,000 different businesses. Brian offered insights and perspective on his finance and business analytics career. Read the article »
Alumni Spotlight – Arek Schmocker
CFIB Alumnus Arek Schmocker was featured in Update Magazine – Fall 2023 Arek is a 2019 MBA graduate and is co-founder, CFO, and COO of Chocolate Rescue for Dogs in Germantown, WI. He and his business partner created a product that can save your dog’s life! Read the featured article to learn more about Arek’s company. Read the article »
Finance at WSB
This past fall, WSB welcomed eight different faculty members across five academic departments. The Finance department welcomed two of these faculty members.
Erik Mayer, Assistant Professor of Finance joined WSB from Southern Methodist University where he was an assistant professor of finance. He earned his doctorate in finance from the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. Erik will be teaching Financial Markets, Institutions, and Economic Activity.
Anthony Defusco joined WSB as an Associate Professor of Finance, having previously been at Northwestern University as Associate Professor of Finance. Anthony is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton). Anthony will teach Corporation Finance and is also a member of the Nicholas Center Academic Program Committee.
Ways you can support the Nicholas Center
Foster MBA Enrollment
We welcome your support and referrals for Class of 2026 applicants. The admissions process for the next cohort is underway and we appreciate your help in spreading the word about our program! There are plentiful opportunities for students to receive scholarships and merit aid, and programs such as Consortium and Forte that can help support students from underrepresented groups.
Host a Career Trek or Join our Speaker Series
With the relaunch of our Career Trek’s, we’re looking for companies to host our students this next year. We’re interested in exploring site visits in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, and New York City! We’re also interested in bringing in additional finance speakers to connect classroom learnings to real world application. Contact Barb or Andrea to further discuss.
Engage on Social Media
The Nicholas Center is increasing its social media presence and we’d love for you to connect with and follow our accounts on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook to stay up on our news and other events.
Give to the Nicholas Center
Making a financial contribution is one way to make an impact and help further the Nicholas Center’s mission. We welcome donations to the Don M. Condon and Linda M. Condon Graduate Fellowship Fund. Donations to this fund are used to provide financial support to students who exemplify Don’s spirit, commitment, and leadership in the field of corporate finance.
Nicholas Center Contact Information
Barb Bolens
Director, Nicholas Center
P: +1 608-264-0273
E: barb.bolens@wisc.edu
Andrea Sorenson
Assistant Director, Nicholas Center
P: +1 608-262-1553
E: andrea.sorenson@wisc.edu
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