GW Giving Day is next week (April 4 and 5, 2023). Check out a message from one of our former students and alumni advocates, Josh Luberda, BS ‘22.
Josh was enrolled in the Phillips Student Investment Fund class, the Quant Student Investment Fund class, and the Venture Capital class with the GW Investment Institute during his time at GW. Mr. Luberda is an Investment Analyst at Cambridge Associates.
“The most valuable experience I had at GW was in Rodney Lake’s Applied Financial Securities Analysis class. The class encouraged independent thinking, demanded rigorous analysis, and improved my presentation skills. These have been invaluable to me in my role as an investment analyst.”
– Josh Luberda, BS ’22
Consider supporting the institute by donating during the upcoming GW Giving Day. Click to support experiential investment education at GW: go.gwu.edu/givetogwii
GW Giving Day is around the corner. Check out this message from one of our amazing alumni advocates, Skye Kussmann, MBA ‘20 to learn more about student experience in our classes and the impact they make.
Skye was enrolled in Venture Capital class and Ramsey Student Investment Fund class with the GW Investment Institute during her Global MBA program. Ms. Kussmann is a Director at Liberty Mutual Insurance in Boston.
Skye Kussmann, MBA ’20
“By participating in GWII’s Venture Capital class, I gained the skills necessary to think critically about launching a business – and won first place at GW’s New Venture Competition as a result! The hands-on learning opportunities in my GWII courses set me up for career success, and I encourage alumni to donate to continue this programming!”
Consider supporting the institute by donating during the upcoming GW Giving Day. Click to donate: go.gwu.edu/givetogwii
GW Giving Day is less than a month away! Our alumni advocate Austin Lai, BBA ‘22 shared some highlights from our classes.
Austin was enrolled in the Phillips Student Investment Fund class and the Venture Capital class with the GW Investment Institute during his time at GW. Mr. Lai is a Business Technology Solutions Analyst at Deloitte.
Austin Lai, BBA ’22
“The classes I took with the GW Investment Institute were invaluable for my personal and professional growth. Through encouraging critical thinking, providing ample opportunities for public speaking, and facilitating hands-on, experiential learning, they helped me grow as a student and prepared me for my career. Of all the classes, Foundations of Venture Capital was particularly unique. In this class, I was able to develop a start-up idea with my peers and participate in the GW New Venture Competition without taking on any risk, sparking my interest in fintech-related engagements at Deloitte. I urge you to donate to and support the GWII on GW Giving Day so that current students can benefit from these exceptional classes and experiential learning opportunities.”
Consider supporting the institute by donating during the upcoming GW Giving Day. Click to donate: go.gwu.edu/givetogwii
Next month, GW Giving Day is coming up and we’re excited to showcase one of our outstanding alumni advocates, Kayla Albano.
During her time at GWSB, Ms. Kayla Albano BS’ 22 was enrolled in Quantitative Investing and Venture Capital classes. Kayla is a 2022 GW Ramsey Scholar and an Associate at KPMG.
Kayla Albano, GWSB ’22
“One of the most rewarding classes that I took during my time at The George Washington University School of Business was the GW Quant Student Investment Fund. Each class was challenging and exciting and was an experience I never thought I would have the opportunity to engage in at the undergraduate level. I learned about the world of quantitative investing through complex research, in-class panel sessions by professionals in the field, and hands-on modeling experience. This class pushed students to stay up-to-date with current market news, adopt a problem-solving mindset, and to always be thinking about how certain decisions in model building could help attain the best results – This was ultimately the most influential aspect of the class that I brought forward with me to my current role at KPMG. I encourage all students in the GWSB to take a class with the GW Investment Institute and I also encourage alumni to give back, as this is an incredible GW commitment to experiential learning.”
Consider supporting the institute by donating during the upcoming GW Giving Day. Click to donate: go.gwu.edu/givetogwii
Following a bearish Q3, the fourth quarter closed the year with a better economic environment despite recession fears. Some major highlights are a better-than-expected GDP growth of 2.9%, the Federal Reserve slowing down its interest rate hikes from 75-basis points in November to 50-basis points in December to tame inflation, China relaxing its stringent COVID policies to ease supply chain challenges and a slight decline in the unemployment rate from 3.7% in October to 3.5% in December showing a resilient labor market. The consumer price index also declined by 0.1% in December, after rising by 0.4% in October. This brought inflation to its lowest rate of 6.5% in December since October 2021. The S&P 500 closed the fourth quarter with a growth of 7.6% and was the only quarter in 2022 with a positive return. The index however closed the year with a decline of 18.1%. All sectors except the Communication and Consumer Discretionary showed positive returns. The top three winners were Energy 22.8%, Industrials 19.2% and Materials 15.1%. The Real Estate sector closed the quarter with a positive return of 3.8% as mortgage rates cooled off.
For the quarter ended December 31, 2022 the GWII’s Student Investment Funds in aggregate underperformed the benchmark with a return of 5.7% vs. 7.6% for the S&P 500. The funds also underperformed the benchmark in the calendar year -19.2% vs. -18.1% for the S&P 500.
We are excited to welcome Prof. Christine Song to the GW Investment Institute. Ms. Song is teaching an undergraduate Applied Financial Securities Analysis class. Students enrolled in this class manage the GW Phillips Student Investment Fund with over $2.5 million in assets under management.
Prof. Song is a Portfolio Manager at New Century Advisors and manages the US SMID Equity strategy. She has extensive asset management experience and has been a key player in the D.C. investment community. Prof. Song serves on the board of the C.F.A. Society of Washington, D.C., where she founded the Women’s Investment Network (WIN). She is the former President and current board member of the Washington Association of Money Managers (WAMM).
I enjoyed welcoming students to campus this week, meeting them in each of the GW Investment Institute (GWII) classes, and learning more about why they are taking one of our classes and what they hope to learn.
This semester GWII is teaching 100 undergraduate students in the following classes:
GW Phillips Student Investment Fund class: Students serve as analysts and manage approximately $2.4 million (as of 1/20/2023) of university endowment funds. Students focus on a particular sector and use fundamental analysis and the GWII Investment Framework to pitch to sell a current holding to fund the purchase of stock that the student believes will be a better long-term investment. This fund was started in 2008 and named in honor of former GWSB Dean Susan Phillips. The fund’s portfolio advisor is Mark Anfang, GW alumnus and a portfolio manager at Scopus Asset Management.
GW Quant Student Investment Fund class: Students learn about common quant investing strategies and focus on data-driven models. They learn how to identify and analyze different types of data and work in groups to build and test predictive models. The fund was established in 2021 and it had over $88,000 in assets under management as of 1/20/2023. The fund’s portfolio advisor is Aron Kershner, GW alumnus, and Senior Portfolio Manager in the Customized Beta Strategies business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management Quantitative Investment Strategies.
Venture Capital class: Students focus on building and evaluating startups while learning about the venture capital business through group assignments and guest lectures. In this class, students also participate in the New Venture Competition (NVC). The course is taught by Prof. Bill Collier, double GW alumnus and Principal at Noblis Ventures.
I’m excited to host several GWII Advisory Board members and alumni as guest speakers in GWII’s classes.
Save the date
I hope you can join and support us during the following events:
GWII Annual Conference and Reception, March 24, 2023 at GWSB
As the year comes to a close, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on all that we have accomplished as a team in 2022. First and foremost, we want to express our gratitude to our GW Investment Institute (GWII) community, our GW students, faculty, staff, and our GW Investment Institute Advisory Board for their dedication and contributions.
I’m proud to share some of the GW Investment Institute’s highlights from the past semester.
Final presentations
During the last two weeks we held five Stock Pitch Days with 71 pitches, across three Student Investment Funds, and four classes. We also held final startup presentations in the Venture Capital class. Thank you to our students for their hard work and dedication and thank you to all alumni who contributed their valuable time and shared their wisdom as guest speakers and judges. See a quick Instagram recap.
New research tools
Thanks to a generous donation from Mr. Steve Ross BBA, ‘81, our students used FactSet for their equity research. Additionally, one of our classes had access to BlackRock’s Aladdin technology thanks to alumni Oscar Pulido, BBA ‘01 and Dan Someck, BBA ‘06. Our team is grateful for contributions and support from our alumni.
GWII Alumni reception
Last month we held an alumni event in New York City. We look forward to having more in-person alumni and student events in the new year.
Learn more about GWII
I hope you will enjoy reading some of the following materials that provide information about our activities.
Student blog about McGill’s Competition written by Ameen Iraqi
Student blog about Cornell’s Conference written by Rhys Chambers
Fun fact: December 31st marks one year since we established the GW Quant Student Investment Fund!
The GW Investment Institute team and I are looking forward to spring semester 2023. Stay tuned for more details about upcoming classes, Stock Pitch Days, our annual investment conference, GW Ramsey Scholars awards, and more.
The GW Investment Institute (GWII) teaches students at the George Washington University how to invest and how to think about investing. GW undergraduate and graduate students learn by doing. Our students serve as analysts and portfolio managers, managing approximately $6.5 million in university endowment funds across four student investment funds covering: equities, real estate, and quantitative investing. The institute also offers a class on venture capital. In the GW School of Business finance classes taught by the GW Investment Institute, students:
• perform equity research, develop an investment thesis, pitch stocks (individually and as a part of a team),
• gain exposure to tools and techniques for building quantitative models,
• learn how to utilize research tools such as: FactSet, Bloomberg, BlackRock’s Aladdin, and PitchBook,
• connect with alumni and industry professionals, and
• qualify to receive a financial award for stellar performance in class.
The GWII has over 1,300 alumni worldwide, many of whom currently work in finance and give back to GWII. Our alumni make contributions by providing guest lectures, mentoring, advising, connections, and donations.
Your financial support for the GW Investment Institute enables real-world learning and networking opportunities for our students. It also improves a student’s experience at GW and contributes to better industry placement.
Funding opportunities
Student competitions and conferences
$3,000 – GW Stock Pitch Days – sponsor refreshments for 80-100 students per semester as they deliver final pitches for the GWII Student Investment Funds.
$5,000 – Cornell’s Women in Investing (WIN) Conference – learn more from a blog post written by a GW student Rhys Chambers who took a part in the WIN conference in September 2022.
$10,000 – McGill’s MIPC Competition – learn more about this conference from a blog post written by GW student Ameen Iraqi.
$10,000 – Venture Capital Internship – learn more about Venture Capital Internship Program from blog posts written by former beneficiaries of the program Lexington Zografakis (from fall 2021 intern) and Will Aherns (summer 2022 intern).
$10,000 – Alumni Reception – sponsor an alumni reception for example, in New York City or Washington, D.C.
$20,000 – Finance Career Trek NYC – finance track to NYC for the top 10 students from our classes.
$30,000 – Student teaching assistantship per academic year. Support several student Teaching Assistants helping with GWII’s classes.
“The opportunities and experience I received from the GW Investment Institute and Professor Lake were essential to getting my dream job. The class allowed me to be hands-on in the markets, apply my finance background from previous courses into real-time analysis, develop as a public speaker, and my favorite —force me to defend my investment thesis for the portfolio.”
$1 million – Name fund and a seat on the GWII Governing Board. Back in 2005 Mr. Russ Ramsey and Ms. Norma Ramsey named GW Ramsey Student Investment Fund.
$21 million – Name the Institute with over ~$6.5 million in assets under management (as of 11/22/2022).
Advisory Board
$50,000 Advisory Board membership. We currently have eight advisory board members that meet quarterly and provide guidance to the GWII.
$5 million to endow the Institute Director position. To secure the future of the Institute, funding is required for the position of Director of the Institute.
In the upcoming months the GW Investment Institute will announce a Capital Campaign with a goal to raise $1 million by 2025. Many of these funding opportunities will be included in the campaign.
Your support is much appreciated and every dollar donated to the institute will go toward providing more opportunities for our students.
This guest blog post is written by Ameen Iraqi, a GW senior studying Business Administration with concentrations in both Finance and International Business. The GW Investment Institute partnered with the Office of Undergraduate Programs for this competition. Thank you to all who were involved!
Will Aherns, Ameen Iraqi, and Rhys Chambers
I am honored and grateful for the opportunity to represent The George Washington University (GW) and the GW Investment Institute at the McGill International Portfolio Challenge (MIPC). MIPC is the world’s premier buy-side finance competition, with universities competing from across the globe to address a pressing issue in the world of finance.
This year’s case centered on transitioning a fictional Australian pension fund/superannuation fund, to net-zero (greenhouse gas emissions) by 2050 and clearly outlining how to achieve this ambitious goal. I partnered with GW students Rhys Chambers (SEAS ‘25) and Will Ahrens (GWSB ‘25). Collectively, we directed our efforts to thoroughly researching existing superannuation strategies to integrate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) into investment decision-making. Major industry shortcomings existed in comprehensive ESG-tracking for real assets and private equity. Our approach combined quantitative climactic and qualitative investment analyses to guide our strategy in directing the superannuation to achieve a 2050 net-zero target.
In creating our proposal and presentation, we conducted rigorous research and analysis on the sustainable investing space, learning how to specifically bridge the gap between ambitious climate goals and a lack of transparency. Reaching out to GW alumni and professionals in the industry offered us a unique perspective in tackling this issue to lead the change to a future net-zero world.
The GW Investment Institute was instrumental in providing our team with the necessary resources to compete with top universities around the world, as well as providing insightful and critical feedback to ensure we remained competitive. Through our participation in this year’s MIPC competition, we learned that the effort to make investing sustainable is one that requires deep analytical thought that approaches the issue from a current and future perspective. We also learned that it is crucially important to collaborate with stakeholders being represented and coordinating this effort with other leaders around the world. We hope our work in this year’s competition can serve as a source of inspiration for students and professionals alike so that we may work in unison to achieve ambitious financial and climactic goals in the coming years.
2022 McGill International Portfolio Challenge Overview
The central goal of our strategy relied on reducing current emissions while also planning our portfolio for a future net-zero world. Further, we noticed a significant disconnect between institutional strategies and existing climate efforts, such as the Paris Climate Agreement. Seeing this, our proposal aimed to bridge the gap between existing climate commitments and institutional approaches to achieving net-zero emissions.
With such a large task at hand, we redefined our investment mandate to maximize risk-adjusted climate-aware returns at low management fees. Redefining our investment mandate at the onset gave us the opportunity to optimize our portfolio while mitigating future investment, climate, and transition risks. We also introduced a comprehensive timeline with five-year intervals to ensure our proposal was Paris-aligned. Furthermore, we employed a data-driven approach to layer in key investment themes to develop an asset-class approach, tailoring our offerings to investors’ and their climate-related ambitions.
Through our proposal, we learned how intensive our approach needed to be in order to address climate change concerns, providing a clear outline through every step of the process. We also found tremendous value in evaluating the sustainable investing industry holistically, evaluating where competing superannuations stood in terms of their emissions reduction plans. Further, we hoped to address investors’ concerns with how a climate-aware portfolio may achieve greater returns than a traditional portfolio. While difficult to sway those most opposed to climate-aware investing, we sought to create options which would benefit all stakeholders and maintain a positive impact on local communities.
Despite our progressive investments, our biggest obstacle was completely reaching net-zero, so we maintained a focus on offsetting remaining emissions. Analyzing Australia’s National Inventory Reports, we determined the Land Use and Change and Forestry sub-sector would be the most beneficial in offsetting our remaining emissions. We sought to invest in reforestation and carbon capture and storage techniques, along with investing directly in farmers who are using regenerative agriculture methods to create carbon sinks, and investing in carbon credits through a third party.
Again, we hope our work in this year’s competition may serve as a source of inspiration for future teams as they compete in future competitions.
