Private Markets Club

Last night, the Private Markets Club had the pleasure of hosting Lawrence Cunningham and his colleague, Nicole Rich. Lawrence has led an extensive career in academia, serves on the board of directors for several public companies, and is a decorated author. He now serves as the Director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. During his time with the club, he delved into the intricacies behind Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway's tenure of success with a focus on "contrarian disintermediation." Members learned about Berkshire Hathaway's trust-centric culture; nonhierarchical structure; and unorthodox financing through insurance float, deferred taxes, and their "internal banking" system. Before Q&A, Lawrence and Nicole conducted a short quiz for members to have the opportunity to win a copy of his popular book, "The Essays of Warren Buffett." We'd like to thank them for spending their evening with PMC and for their roles in the UD community!

Reflecting on the past two weeks, the Private Markets Club was fortunate to welcome 3 incredible guest speakers. We were first joined by Mark Crawford, Head of Venture Capital at Caterpillar Inc., and Mark's VC Associate Kevin Miller. Mark led an interactive session that tested PMC members' creativity and sales skills to demonstrate the challenges of successfully pitching a product or idea to a venture capitalist. He later discussed his professional experience and emphasized the importance of having a personalized "thesis" or perception of the world integrated into your investment strategy. Kevin provided members with guidance on how to break into a competitive industry and how PE compares to VC. Thank you to PMC Faculty Advisor Fei Xie for connecting Mark and Kevin with the Club! The following week, PMC Advisory Board member, Managing Director and Private Client Advisor at Nuveen, Jason Castelluccio, CIMA? spoke to the club. Jason shared his valuable insights on the macroeconomy, trends in specific sectors, and performance of international markets. Members had the opportunity to hear about Jason's experience working in finance and receive advice for how to best navigate the industry. Thank you to Mark, Kevin, and Jason for taking the time to speak to the Club and engage with members.

The Private Markets Club is excited to share our Spring 2024 Newsletter! The newly revamped PMC Newsletter highlights developments within the Club, recaps our events from the semester, and includes some interesting research on trends in the industry. We would like to extend a sincere thank you to the many speakers who joined us last semester and all those who made our Spring semester events possible. Thank you to Vice President Chloe Garcia for putting the Newsletter together and President Luke Troutner for contributing to the research section.

The Private Markets Club is excited to be in the midst of the Fall 2024 recruitment process and would like to share 2 important reminders: 1) Applications will close tomorrow 9/18 at 11:59pm. We encourage anyone who is interested to apply regardless of year, major, or prior knowledge of the private markets. The form to apply can be found on our website under the applications tab. 2) Our second interest meeting and resume review session will be held tomorrow 9/18 at 6pm in Lerner 231. Anyone interested in learning more about PMC is highly encouraged to attend. Please email [email protected] with any questions.

In our final meeting of the semester, the Private Markets Club had the pleasure of hosting a guest speaker panel consisting of Ellen La Fronz, Jason Castelluccio, CIMA?, and UD Endowment CIO, Keith Walter. The three guests discussed the current macroeconomic environment and its impact on various asset classes. They also shared valuable career advice for students interested in perusing a career in finance. At last nights meeting, PMC was also joined by members of Women in Finance University of Delaware and Blue Hen Investment Club. Thank you to our speakers and everyone else who joined us last night!

Earlier today, members of the Private Markets Club had the privilege of visiting the Hamilton Lane Headquarters in Conshohocken, PA. During our trip, we got to hear presentations from the Private Credit and Evergreen Platform teams, learn an overview of the firm's operations, and discuss internship and full-time opportunities followed by lunch and networking. Thank you so much to everyone at Hamilton Lane for hosting us, taking the time to answer our questions, and spending time getting to know PMC members. Special thank you to Owen Burns, Sean Barber, and the University of Delaware Endowment for making this event possible.

Last week, PMC President Luke Troutner and VP Chloe Garcia visited Alexis I. du Pont High School to give a presentation on early investing and careers in finance. Topics included asset allocation, risk, diversification, and professional designations. Thank you to Kylee Holliday for hosting us and for fostering a great financial literacy program for students!

Huge thank you to VP of Market Risk at TD Securities and PMC Advisory Board member, Joshua Stern, CFA, CAIA, for taking the time to speak to the club last night. Josh shared his experience studying for and passing the CFA Level I and II exams while still pursuing his degree at UD. He also gave members insight into how his role and relationship with risk has changed after TD's acquisition of Cowen. Later in the evening, Josh, Richard Jakotowicz Jr, Zachary Kramer, and fellow Advisory Board members Jane Abitanta, Chris Locke, William Wallace, and Keaton Stott joined members of the Private Markets Club for dinner at Taverna. Your mentorship and advocacy is invaluable to the club. We appreciate you all making the trip to campus and joining us for dinner!

Huge thank you to VP of Market Risk at TD Securities and PMC Advisory Board member, Joshua Stern, CFA, CAIA, for taking the time to speak to the club last night. Josh shared his experience studying for and passing the CFA Level I and II exams while still pursuing his degree at UD. He also gave members insight into how his role and relationship with risk has changed after TD's acquisition of Cowen. Later in the evening, Josh, Richard Jakotowicz Jr, Zachary Kramer, and fellow Advisory Board members Jane Abitanta, Chris Locke, William Wallace, and Keaton Stott joined members of the Private Markets Club for dinner at Taverna. Your mentorship and advocacy is invaluable to the club. We appreciate you all making the trip to campus and joining us for dinner!

Last night, the Private Markets Club was fortunate to be joined by Steve Dempsey. Steve is a Managing Partner at Greyrock Capital Group and sits on PMC's Advisory Board. Members had the opportunity to learn the basics of private equity, how PE funds are structured, the role of mezzanine debt in buyouts, and how to interpret fund returns. We appreciate Steve making the trip to campus to help grow the knowledge of the club and share his insights. Thank you, Steve!