Board Members Create Finance Industry Experience For Scholars
Posse board members Chris Lord and Michael Beckwith collaborated this past summer to create a unique career experience for two Posse Scholars.
“We were thinking of how people who might not traditionally think of a career in finance could understand it was an opportunity for them,” says Chris, co-founder and portfolio manager at Criterion Capital Management, a San Francisco-based investment advisory firm.
He and Michael, a principal at Maverick Capital, decided to create summer internships that included four weeks at each of their companies. Abu Iyob-Tessema of Bucknell University and Perla Valladares Hernandez of George Washington University were selected for the positions, which came with a stipend.
At Criterion, the interns rotated through departments to see all sides of hedge fund management, working alongside senior staff and visited by special guest speakers from the business world. Among the firm’s 30 employees, “the Scholars were doing the work of a 20-something who had been in the workplace for a few years,” says Chris.
At Maverick, says Michael, “the approach was a little more research-centric,” with each Scholar completing two niche projects based on their interests, supervised by investment staff.
“We got a lot of exposure, and everyone was so happy to help,” says Abu, a math and economics major now in his senior year at Bucknell. Looking to professional prospects, he says, “I definitely want to get involved in investment on the buy side.”
“To me it’s just a fundamental wrong in the world,” that a student’s background might offer less access to career-launching experiences, says Chris. “I’d like to do everything I can do to reverse that. I think that’s the core mission of Posse.”
Michael and Chris intend to present the internships again next year, potentially with position openings for even more Scholars.
“What I respect most about Posse is that it is cultivating the next generation of leaders,” says Michael. “Posse means opportunity.”
