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We are inviting our Alumni to send us news and updates, and stay in
touch, through us, with other alumni around the world.
Please write to us econfinance@fc.edu,
including your full name and graduation class, and we will
post your messages.
Paolo Vismara, Class of 2006
I am writing to let everyone know how life outside of FC is treating me. After 5 months of interviews, case studies, tests and meeting with several investment banks and consulting firms, I have finally found my place. I started working about a month ago for Accenture, probably the largest IT consulting firm in the world. There, I worked as a Business Analyst, doing High Value business consulting for two insurance companies RAS (one of the largest Italian insurance providers) and AIG (the largest American insurance provider). I actively worked in designing the business plan for their integration with small and medium size enterprises (SME) in Europe. Both insurance groups are very big in the corporate sector, but weak in the SMEs and therefore our goal was to design a plan to improve their presence in SMEs for Italy, France, Germany, UK and Spain. It was very challenging and demanding (the day I got home the earlier was at 10pm) and I enjoyed very much. A lot of the skills Franklin faculty have taught me came in handy.
About two weeks ago, I got a call from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) saying that they have heard very good things about me and that my talent was wasted in Accenture and that they would like me to join their workforce. After several interviews and tests, BCG made me an offer. After a week of bidding on my compensation between Accenture and BCG, I decided to embark this new adventure, and I moved to BCG. I have been here only for a couple days and will meet in the afternoon to see in which project I will be inserted in, but the first impression was excellent. As soon as I find out my first project I will keep everyone informed.
For now, all I know is that I am the youngest Associate BCG Italy has ever hired and I am the first one to receive a sign in bonus, which is only given to consultant. What I have reached so far, is in large part because of Franklin faculty!
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Heidi Birrer, Class of 1994
hobirrer@dataone.in
I have been living in India since 2004. I am here attempting to establish a very small, yet hopefully profitable, fair trade project. I live in Jharkhand’s small, new, and backward capital city, Ranchi. Jharkhand is the poorest state on the Indian subcontinent. It is poor because the wealth of its natural resources has been siphoned off to develop the north of the State it once belonged to, Bihar.
There is plenty of wealth being mined each year and much more beneath the surface. The Chief Minister changes annually and there is a lot of talk, but nothing gets done. Buildings get built, and people get displaced, that sort of thing continues; rich getting richer, poor getting poorer. Already successful manufacturing (silk) and industrial (mining and steel) sectors get attention. But the poor are still hungry, their children malnourished, witch doctors still exist, female children begin their working lives especially early, caring for their siblings, helping with the cooking and washing; early, by about 6 years of age.
I refer readers to a few articles by Gabor Steingart about why, perhaps, goods are decisively cheaper when they are made in Asia and how we are transferring our own well being to Asia and other countries where labor is cheap and taxes are low:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,442552,00.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,445365,00.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,443330,00.html
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Claudia Berg, Class of 2002
claudiaberg@hotmail.com
After leaving Franklin in 2002, I spent two fun years in the UK at the University of Essex where between lively British students’ party-going I somehow managed to obtain a Master in Economics. As penance, I have been working quite seriously for the past two years at SEAF, a global fund manager that establishes and manages investment funds directed at small and medium enterprises in emerging markets. There I worked as an economist on a study aimed at evaluating the broader socioeconomic impacts of their investments. Now I feel that I have earned the right (and the money) to return to university life and I intend to pursue a PhD in Economic Development. More seriously, my ambition is to acquire some skills that would allow me to contribute to poverty reduction.
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CHAD WESEN, 2004
cwesen@hotmail.com
Since 2004 I have been working as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Eastern
European country of Moldova. I am technically an agricultural
volunteer, but in reality I have been doing projects in a wide range of sectors from small
business development to youth development. Day to day I work with local
partners to develop educational seminars for youth and adults, help farmers
and entrepreneurs write business plans, coach youth sports teams and help
organize national conferences. Some seminars that I have designed and
implemented include how to design and manage a project (grant
writing), an introduction to marketing, an introduction to sales and customer
service, needs assessment techniques, financial and risk management for
small farmers, and extension methodology. In addition to "one time only" seminars, a group
of volunteers and I have developed an intensive three day business seminar
for high school students that teaches them how to develop a business idea
into a rough business plan. We have done 8 such seminars around the country
in villages and small towns and number over 150 beneficiaries, all without
external funding (grants). 8 of the business plans developed at
our seminars have been submitted to banks and received funding. I'll complete my Peace
Corps service in November 2006 at which time I'll return to the Seattle area
and start job hunting. |
MONROE
MANN, 1999
MonroeMann@aol.com
Right now, I'm on active duty at
Fort Drum, NY preparing for Operation Iraqi Freedom III. My unit
should be heading over there in a few months, and as an intel
unit, go figure, we'll be doing (in addition to other stuff) a
lot of economic & financial analysis as we help to rebuild
the country. I've also begun investing in real estate (slowly
but surely)! I hope Lugano is as splendid as it always has been.
I wish everyone in paradise a wonderful summer and the best of
wishes.
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ALONSO
GARFIAS SITGES, 1998
alonso.garfias@banorte.com
I wanted to tell you how much
I enjoyed my time at Franklin College studying economics.
After I graduated, I went on to take a diploma on applied
statistics and began working for the Ministry of Finance in
Mexico. After working for the Ministry of Finance, I went
into Banking as a Loan Officer for Banorte, then I switched
into Sales Strategies. Banorte sends me to a program called
Graduate School of Banking for a couple of weeks per year. I
found myself intrigued over the new Banking program.
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DEREK
PETERSON, 2002 DPeterson@espeed.com
Since
graduating from Franklin College in May '02 I have been
working in Foreign Exchange.
I am currently working on the Cantor Fitzgerald /
eSpeed electronic foreign exchange platform. This
platform follows an industry unique business model,
which allows the Buyside (Hedge Funds, CTA's,
Corporations) to access to the same liquidity as the
Sellside (Banks). We are currently experiencing
rapid growth after having dramatically improved our
liquidity. |
BEN HOHNE, 2004
hohne@businesscycle.com
Here a short intro into what I am doing right now. I
left Franklin at the end of 2003, in order to work
as an intern at the Economic Cycle Research
Institute in NYC. ECRI is the leading institute for
business cycle research and thus there is a lot to
learn for me that I can't learn
anywhere else. So far, the learning curve was not
as steep as it could have been but I am looking
forward to get more into it until the end of the
year. Then I am going to leave NYC and maybe if
everything works out as I want it to, then I'll be
going to China to work there for awhile. Further
future plans involve a Master's Degree and maybe
a Ph.D. but first I will have to find out which
direction it should be. But I'll keep you
updated till then.
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