Letter from the Director
Hello Nicholas Center community and friends,
Summer is nearly here and we find ourselves in a moment of celebration and reflection at the Nicholas Center for Corporate Finance & Investment Banking. We were thrilled to honor our Class of 2025 students earlier this month as they take their next steps into the world of finance. Their dedication, resilience, and passion have shaped them into leaders who are Trusted to Lead and are ready to make an impact within their organizations.
We are continually inspired by the dedication of our alumni, employer partners, and friends who support our mission—whether through engaging with our speaker series, sponsoring a consulting project, hosting a career trek, or mentoring a student, your engagement makes all the difference. Your involvement helps shape the future of our students and drives innovation within the Nicholas Center community. Looking ahead, we invite you to stay connected and explore meaningful ways to support the school.
Thank you for being an integral part of our journey. We look forward to staying in touch and supporting our Nicholas Center MBA students together.
Have a wonderful summer!
Barb
Spring 2025
Class of 2025 Graduation
Earlier this month, we held our Class of 2025 graduation where we celebrated our 12 Nicholas Center MBA students. We’re very proud of our graduates who have worked incredibly hard over the past two years. Many of our students have secured full-time roles at American Family (Daniel Ofurum), United Airlines (Jordan Ross), Baird (Arjun Singh and Nick Wong), WineShipping.com (Jakob Burkett), and CASE Credit Union (Connor Mann). Two of our students are returning to work in their home country in Uzbekistan (Shokhrukh Shodiev) and South Korea (Hanseok Jeong) and we have a few students actively pursuing corporate finance and consulting opportunities. We encourage you to view their resumes and reach out to students directly or email the Nicholas Center if you have a role that is suited for our Nicholas Center MBA students!
Nicholas Center Award Recipients
Albert “Ab” Nicholas Award
The Ab Nicholas award was presented to Nick Wong who demonstrated outstanding contributions and achievements to the Nicholas Center program, student body and community as a whole. Nick is a true testament of leadership in action. During the MBA program, Nick excelled as GBA President, served as a Posse Mentor and a Consortium Fellow & Liaison and was an active participant in all of our experiential learning trips – Minneapolis, Chicago, Peru, New York City & Mexico City! Nick was also one of only a few Poets & Quants Best & Brightest award nominees from the Wisconsin School of Business which recognizes the most accomplished full-time MBA students from MBA schools nationwide. Nick was also one of our featured graduation speakers at our Class of 2025 graduation ceremony! Nick will be joining Baird full-time as a Private Wealth Management Associate.
The Howard Thompson award was presented to Arjun Singh in recognition of remarkable leadership skills and mentorship to others. Arjun served as a mentor to first-year investment banking students, meeting with them regularly to help them prepare for the rigorous recruiting and preparation that is required. Since we had a larger IB class this past year, his support was instrumental in four of our students securing IB internship offers. Arjun also met with numerous prospective and newly admitted students and served as President of the Graduate Finance Organization. Arjun is a well respected leader within his cohort who made an incredible impact on his peers. Arjun will be joining Baird full-time as an Investment Banking Associate.
Graduate Awards of Excellence
We also congratulate several CFIB students who were recognized at the Graduate Awards of Excellence ceremony which recognized students across the entire MBA and Masters programs. The following CFIB students were recognized:
- Nick Wong received the Leadership Award which was given to select students who exemplify the Wisconsin Experience and who are impactful leaders.
- Jordan Ross received the Academic Excellence Award which was given to select students who received the highest GPA and excelled at their MBA core and specialization classes.
- Connor Mann received the Experiential Learning Award which was given to select students who demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to experiential learning trips and activities.
Class of 2026 Internship Placement
The Nicholas Center has eleven Class of 2026 students and ten of these students were seeking internships. We are currently at a 90% internship placement rate – our students have accepted internships at Hoffmaster, (Ryan Baxter), Ippolito Christian (Seth Llano), American Family Insurance (Jakob Monroe), Rehlko (Smayan Naik), and Romero Capital (Clyde Smith). Four of our students secured an investment banking summer associate internship at Baird (Andrew Sternaman & Clare Sullivan), RBC Capital Markets (Matthew Winkler) and Harris Williams (Noah Hurtado).
We’re very proud of our four investment banking students who worked hard last summer and fall to network and prepare for the rigorous IB recruiting cycle. This class marks the largest IB internship class for the Nicholas Center. As mentioned earlier, we are very grateful to our graduating student Arjun Singh for his mentorship of these first year students. We also are thankful for the numerous alumni who supported these students with coffee chats, mock interviews, and recruiting advice.
Class of 2026 Student Spotlight
Brandon Muganga is a rising second year CFIB MBA student who is actively pursuing corporate finance and capital markets internships. Brandon is from Kigali, Rwanda and received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. Prior to joining the MBA program, Brandon worked for Ngali Holdings in Corporate Development. Brandon is a Level 3 CFA Candidate and will be a Teaching Assistant for Financial Derivatives this next year. Reach out to Brandon if you’re in need of an articulate, technically strong, high performing finance intern! View Brandon’s resume.
Jakob Monroe is a rising second year CFIB MBA student and will be working as an FP&A intern at American Family Insurance in Madison this summer. Jakob is from Denver, CO and graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a Bachelor of Arts in Integrative Physiology. Prior to the MBA program, Jakob worked as a lead sports performance specialist at Elite Speed Sports Performance in Englewood, CO. Since joining the MBA program, Jakob has quickly mastered finance concepts and developed a strong business acumen. Known as the valuation guru of his cohort, Jakob posted a valuation tutorial video this past year that went viral among his classmates!
Career Trek to New York City
Our Nicholas Center staff and CFIB MBA students ventured to New York City on April 15-18th, 2025 to learn from industry finance leaders in the field. We’re thankful to our company hosts Verizon, Pfizer, Bloomberg, New York Stock Exchange, RBC Capital Markets, and Goldman Sachs for an engaging and valuable learning experience! Our visits were incredible and students gained deep perspectives across the corporate finance and investment banking pathways. The students were thrilled to capture a picture under the NYSE bell with infamous stock trader Peter Tuchman! We also hosted a WSB alumni reception at The Smith in Midtown and were glad to meet several NYC based alumni!
We had an amazing team of WSB alumni and other friends of the Nicholas Center who coordinated our visits or made introductions for us so we could have a meaningful trip. Special thanks to our Alumni and friends of the Nicholas Center Jia Shan Lee, Liz Langemak, Justin Lilly, Migdalys Perez, Xander Kessler, Jay Page, Patrick Beehan, Adam Trigg, Stephen Gottlieb, and Julie Meyerowich for their meaningful connections and time supporting our NYC trek! You can view our career trek video highlight for an overview of our trip!
We are looking forward to our fall Milwaukee career trek September 18th – 19th, 2025. We are also in the process of planning an International trip to London and Brussels January 10th – 17th, 2026. We are eager to have conversations with our Alumni, Board members and friends of the Nicholas Center to facilitate visits in Milwaukee or abroad. If you are interested in discussing and willing to help us make a connection, we welcome you to reach out to the Nicholas Center to discuss!
ACG Cup Case Competition
Our Nicholas Center MBA students competed in the ACG Wisconsin case competition at Northwestern Mutual in Milwaukee, WI on April 8th, 2025. Our Wisconsin School of Business team defended their title against UW Milwaukee and Marquette University and brought home 1st place again which included a $3,000 prize! We congratulate Ryan Baxter, Brandon Muganga, Andrew Sternaman, and Clare Sullivan for doing a terrific job!
Our students spent countless hours preparing for the case competition. Three teams of WSB students had to prepare and present a realistic investment banking case to industry professionals who act as judges and only one WSB team moved on to the finals. This year’s case involved students providing a rigorous valuation analysis and risk assessment for a publicly traded quantum computing tech company. Students had to recommend and present which strategic path would be most optimal in order to maximize returns and increase shareholder value.
Current Topics in Finance – Don Condon Speaker Series
During our Spring semester Current Topics in Finance class, we scheduled numerous applied learning experiences, case studies, and industry speakers that provided an in-depth exploration of finance pathways and applications. We’re thankful for all of our speakers which are showcased below. We are now booking for Fall 2025, which will be targeted towards sessions that explore finance pathways, while spring will be targeted to more in depth case studies, business transactions, and career discussions. If you are interested in joining our speaker series, reach out to Andrea or Barb to discuss!
Thank you to our Spring 2025 speakers who are listed below!
- Ezra Swanson, Finance Director – Modine Manufacturing
- Topic: Power BI & Finance Applications
- Joe Cruse, Director, Marketing Finance – Chewy
- Topic: Careers in Marketing Finance
- Rachel Nielsen, CFO – Milwaukee Rep
- Topic: Finance Careers in the Non-Profit Sector
- Jake Smith, Partner – Cannage Capital
- Topic: Venture Capital Careers
- Erin Schmidt, Director, Commercial Analytics – Molson Coors
- Topic: Finance & Business Analytics
- John Weyers, CFO – Industrial Physics
- Topic: 13 Week Cash Flow Forecasting
- David Hunker, Global Head of Activist Defense & Elizabeth Steckel, Associate – Piper Sandler
- Topic: Activism & Defense and Shareholder Engagement
- Shawn Dahlke, Senior Director – Assistant Treasurer – SC Johnson
- Topic: Treasury Careers
- Jeff Kelly, Partner – OceanSound Partners
- Topic: Case Study: Private Equity Investment Analysis
Advisory Board News
Welcome New Board Member – Tim Yarbrough
We’re pleased to welcome Tim Yarbrough to the Nicholas Center Advisory Board. Tim is a 2006 Nicholas Center Alumnus and currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer of ZipRecruiter, Inc. [NYSE: ZIP]. He has served in various executive leadership positions since 2014, during which he helped the company grow and transition from a Series B startup to a publicly-listed category leader. Prior to ZipRecruiter, Tim served as the Director of Finance for Convertro, a business intelligence platform, helping to drive its sale to AOL.com for over $100 million. Prior to Convertro, Tim held multiple financial, strategic and operational positions across several business segments at Qualcomm Inc [NASDAQ: QCOM]. The Nicholas Center was thrilled to have Tim join our speaker series this past year to share valuable insights that he learned through the IPO process of taking ZipRecruiter public. We look forward to having Tim’s background and experience on the board.
Advisory Board Membership Inquiries
The Nicholas Center Advisory Board consists of 24 executive leaders who represent our finance career pathways across corporate finance, investment banking, private equity, venture capital, and entrepreneurship. Advisory Board members are expected to engage in one or more of the following ways: mentoring a student, speaking in a class, sponsoring a consulting project, hosting a career trek, or making a financial contribution to our program.
We are always considering new additions to the Advisory Board as we continue to bring new talent and perspectives to the Board. The criteria below is typically desired in new Board Member candidates. We welcome you to reach out directly to Barb if you would like to discuss your candidacy in joining the board. You can also view our current Board Member profiles here.
Board Member Candidate Criteria:
- A passion for helping students and giving back to the Wisconsin School of Business or UW
- Willing to actively participate within the Nicholas Center through board meeting participation, student mentorship and networking, project sponsorship, student placement, etc.
- At least 7-10 years of professional finance experience and have achieved an executive level role (typically Senior Director level or above).
- Corporate Finance, Capital Markets or Consulting leadership role
Nicholas Center or WSB Alumnus, friend of the WSB/Nicholas Center, or industry/employer partner of WSB.
WSB News
WSB Welcomes AI Hub Director Matt Sietz
In January, Matt Sietz joined the Wisconsin School of Business as Director of the AI Hub and PhD/MS Programs & Research Administration. Matt leads initiatives to advance AI research while fostering industry partnerships and preparing students for AI leadership roles. He authors a widely-read newsletter on AI and regularly delivers keynote presentations on technology and AI for business. Matt came to WSB from Google where he served as Director of Performance for Google Retail.
During his tenure as Director of Performance for Google Retail, Matt helped top U.S. retailers leverage AI-powered advertising and analytics to drive growth. He pioneered Google’s retail insights program across merchandising, stores, and retail media, helping improve profit margins, customer experience and operational efficiency. Matt also led Google’s omnichannel strategy and built a playbook to help CFOs better evaluate financial impact of digital investments. Read Matt’s full biography to learn more about his background.
AI Day Showcases Cross-Industry Expertise & Latest Advancements
On February 7th, MBA students had the opportunity to learn from several industry guests and faculty on the topic of AI to further explore the disruptive artificial intelligence and generative AI use cases across different areas of business, including supply chain, marketing, operations, and various industries types including healthcare, professional sports, and retailing. Students were inspired to think about the business implications, challenges, and opportunities within the current transformative technology landscape. Along with WSB faculty, leaders from EnsoData, Olli Health, Salesforce, Google, Deloitte, Epic, and the Philadelphia Phillies participated in the event to share their expertise in the field. To learn about insights gained from this seminar, visit the latest WSB article.
WSB Alum Katie Lorez Shares Five Lessons in Entrepreneurship
Katie Lorenz is a BBA ’12 alum who is the founder of Camo Alpaca, a fair trade apparel company featuring alpaca-inspired products crafted by Peruvian artisans. In WSB’s January article, Katie shares the lessons she’s learned throughout her entrepreneurial journey and offers advice to anyone thinking about starting their own business.
Embracing a Growth Mindset to Achieve Leadership
On April 24th, WSB students had the pleasure of hearing from Cynthia Chu, (BBA ’99) CFO & Growth Officer of Audible. She was a guest speaker for the M. Keith Weikel Leadership Speaker Series where she shared insights into the experiences that have contributed to her successful career. She spoke about the importance of a growth mindset, managing conflict, and creating synergies between marketing and finance. Visit WSB’s recently article on Cynthia’s session with students to learn more – especially if you’re interested in learning what her average audible narration speed is!
Other Ways to Support the Nicholas Center
Sponsor a Consulting Project
Each fall semester, CFIB MBA students work with a Corporate Sponsor who provides a project that has a finance and strategic element and high degree of complexity. Projects could also have operational, regulatory, governance and other elements. Students work on teams of 4-5 and typically begin their work in September and conclude in early December, depending on the complexity of the project, and their work is culminated with a professional presentation with the sponsor. Sponsors are also present on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to answer questions. There is no required fee to participate – contact Barb Bolens to discuss.
Join our Speaker Series
Our Speaker Series is part of a Current Topics in Finance class that all first year CFIB MBA students take during their fall and spring semester. We’re looking forward to bringing in additional finance speakers this fall and next spring to connect classroom learnings to real world application. Contact Andrea Sorenson or Barb Bolens if interested in participating!
Mentor a Student
Each year, we pair our incoming CFIB students with an Alumni and Advisory Board member who mentor who provides advice and support as the student begins the program and recruiting journey. Students are expected to initiate connections and conversations with their mentor. If interested in serving in this capacity, please contact Barb Bolens to further discuss.
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.
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 and Instagram to stay up on our news and other events. Click on the icon links below to connect.
Nicholas Center Contact Information
Barb Bolens, Director, email: barb.bolens@wisc.edu, ph. 414.530.0714
Andrea Sorenson, Assistant Director, email: andrea.sorenson@wisc.edu, ph. 608.262.1553
General Nicholas Center email: nicholascenter@wsb.wisc.edu
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