Four Scripps students are helping bring the world of finance to The Claremont Colleges on October 12-13 during the first “Wall Street Weekend.” A student-led organization from all the colleges hopes the event will create strong networks between business students, faculty, and alumni within the Claremont finance community.
Scripps seniors Valerie Whitacre and Laurel Horn and junior Holly Poole are on the five-college planning committee, which has lined up a distinguished group of alumni to lead discussions and panel sessions focusing on hedge funds and private equity.
“The project will celebrate the amazing connections Claremont has to the business sector and the success we have inspired,” Whitacre said. “Bringing Scripps into this career-oriented event will bring awareness to those students who may share a curiosity for a career in the financial sector.”
“I think it’s especially pertinent to a women’s college to promote events such as these,” said Poole, “since the field of financial services is a traditionally male occupation. We hope this will help empower and encourage women to participate in fields in which they have been traditionally excluded.”
Scripps has bred its share of prominent business leaders, notably Louise L. Francesconi ’75, vice president of Raytheon, and Ruth Markowitz Owades ’66, founder and former CEO of Calyx & Corolla. Several others head foundations, corporations and financial institutions.
Wall Street Weekend planners hope to draw attention to The Claremont Colleges as a great source of potential employees in the financial sector and expose students interested in finance to various careers in the field. The weekend also is an opportunity for Claremont alumni in finance to network amongst themselves.
For returning alumni, Wall Street Weekend begins with a welcome dinner and reception Friday evening, October 12. Student and faculty events begin Saturday, October 13, with a breakfast, panel sessions, and networking in Pomona College’s Edmunds Ballroom.
A hedge fund panel will feature Scott Barker (Pomona ’97) portfolio manager with Analytic Investors, Inc.; Dana Hobson (Harvey Mudd ’85), senior vice president of Bailard; and Peter G. Sasaki (Pomona ’91), founder and managing member of Logo Capital Management, LLC. A private equity panel will include Paul S. Efron (Pomona ’77), advisory director at Goldman Sachs; Kristin Horne (Pomona ’93), managing director at Morgan Stanley; and James A. Quella, senior managing director and senior operating partner of Blackstone’s Private Equity Group.
Harry McMahon, Claremont McKenna alumnus and vice chair of Merrill Lynch, will deliver the keynote to speech at the Athenaeum during Saturday’s lunch.
More than 100 alumnae and 200 students and faculty have already registered for the event.