Spring 2016 Finance Newsletter - NIU

Faculty Research Spotlight
From China to Chicagoland, from not understanding Alabamian English to teaching in the
Midwest, Dr. Lei Zhou has come a long way.
Born in China, Dr. Zhou came to the US in
1993 as an MBA student at the University of
Alabama. “I was not sure what language people in Alabama spoke when I first arrived at
Tuscaloosa,” said Dr. Zhou. He never looked
back, though. In 2002, he joined Miami University an assistant professor after receiving
his PhD from the University
of Florida.
Three years later, he came to NIU. In his 11year NIU tenure, Dr. Zhou has achieved excellence in research and teaching. He has
published 11 articles in premier finance and
economics journals. His undergraduate and
graduate classes are well-received and are
consistently highly rated. In addition, Dr.
Zhou has been a CFA charterholder since
2011. In recognition of his contributions and
success , Dr. Zhou was named the Jones, Diedrich, Mennie Professor of Finance in 2015.
NIU Finance Students Storm Wall Street
Spring 2016
Department of Finance
Greetings from the Finance Department
Lei Zhou
Jones, Diedrich, Mennie Endowed
Professor
Special Thank You
to Our Advisory
Board Members
Michael Syzmanski
FV & FMB Valuation, Inc.
Dennis Dean
BMO Harris Bank
Martin Oosterbaan
American International Group, Inc.
Make NIU Finance
Greater
When you make a gift to NIU’s Department of Finance, you help finance students place into top careers, facilitate realworld learning, and ensure that our students are taught by top faculty. Contact
gnicolos@niu.edu or 815-753-6391 for
more information.
Jeff Rodgers
MB Financial Bank, N.A.
Upcoming
Events
 5/25-5/27: Windy City Summit Conference
 8/22: Undergraduate clas-
Daniel Carmody
TreaSolution, Inc.
Steven Greska
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Adam Larson
Savant Capital Management
ses Resume
 9/12: MS FRM Launch
Stay Connected
Send your email address and any physical
address changes to gnicolos@niu.edu.
Please include your full name and year(s)
and NIU degree(s) earned.
Issue 1
Downtown
 10/22: Homecoming
 11/5-11/6: Student Managed Investment Fund Conference
http://www.cob.niu.edu/departments/finance/
Inside this issue:
Chair
Update
1
Chicago
Update
1
Featured
Alumnus
2
FSAB
Update
2
Bloomberg
2
FMA
Update
2
Featured
Student
3
Excel
Workshops
3
NIUIA
Update
3
Featured
Faculty
4
Upcoming
Events
4
This Spring semester, we have
made large strides in our efforts
to develop the technological
skills of our graduates. In the
coming pages you will read how
we have acquired a Bloomberg
terminal and are encouraging
the related BMC and BESS certifications. We are also in the process of incorporating Microsoft
Office Specialist Excel certification training into our curriculum.
Experiential learning is another
departmental passion.
Each
week, the Deparment’s calendar
(available on our Facebook page)
is filled with either a workshop,
Lunch and Learn, Coffee & Cupcakes, guest speaker, field trip,
or conference outing.
Sadly, this will be my last semester leading the NIU Finance Department. After three years
serving as Chair (on the heels of
a banking career before joining
the teaching ranks), I will be enjoying a break with my wife,
Deb.
But I have no doubt that there
are many more exciting changes
in store for our students!
Dennis Dean
Department Chair
ddean@niu.edu
Chicago, Here We Come!
Northern Illinois University’s College of Business
recently leased space downtown (105 W Madison
St.) slated to house two business graduate programs
and also an alumni/development office. The venue’s
classroom will be shared between the Finance Department’s new Masters in Financial Risk Management program (Mon/Wed) and the MBA Office
(Tues/Thurs). Classes for the MS-FRM will begin this
Fall on September 12, 2016.
Meet Our
Alumni
Matt Gerdes is responsible
for structuring, syndicating
and managing middlemarket debt investments
for the Freeport loan
funds. Prior to joining
Freeport in 2006, Mr.
Gerdes was a Director of
Dymas Capital Management Company where he
originated,
underwrote
and managed investments
in private equity sponsored transactions. Prior to
his role at Dymas, Mr.
Gerdes was a Vice President on GE Capital's Merchant Banking Syndications
Team where he structured
and placed senior and subordinated financings. Mr.
Gerdes graduated cum
laude with a B.S. in Finance from Northern Illinois University and holds
an M.B.A. from the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign.
FSAB Corner
The Finance Student Advisory Board
(FSAB) is a student organization
which serves in an advisory capacity
to the department and acts as the
voice of the Finance student body.
This semester, the FSAB surveyed
finance majors, gathering a total of
74 responses. Expected to be completed by the end of the semester,
the report will provide student feed-
In February, the Finance Department
received its first Bloomberg terminal.
Bloomberg is one of the most popular
professional tools for accessing realtime and historic trading
data, analytics and research, and news for
global financial markets.
The markets include but
are not limited to government securities, corporate securities, mortgage,
money-market,
indices, currency, commodities and equities.
Bloomberg Terminal
Finance majors, minors,
Finance Lab
and certificates can re-
FMA Corner
Matt Gerdes
Freeport Financial
Managing Director
back to the department and promote overall transparency. Later this
month, we are hosting a Recent Finance Alumni Night in which three
finance grads will return to campus
to discuss what to look for in a career as well as interview tips and
tricks. Lastly, the FSAB has organized
a softball tournament for the entire
College of Business, set to take place
behind Barsema Hall on April 28 &
29. The winner will receive a trophy
and, of course, bragging rights.
The Financial Management Association is a professional student organization that bridges the gap between
college education and the business
world. To meet this goal, the FMA
arranges networking events and invites guest speakers to present valuable information. This semester, the
FMA hosted a Meet the Faculty
event where students and professors
had the unique opportunity to get to
know each other over dinner. Another large scale event was the FMA
Jacob Clark
FSAB President
Finance Senior
Bloomberg
Terminal
serve time at the terminal in order to
complete Bloomberg’s self-paced and
free certification modules ( Bloomberg
Market Concepts and Bloomberg Essentials), an achievement which can be
featured on their resumes. The terminal will be integrated into several finance courses, including the student
managed portfolio where data will be
accessed seamlessly through its Excel
API. The two-year purchase was financed through a combination of generous private donations.
Mock Cocktail Party, where students
learned proper etiquette in a social
interview setting by conversing with
business professionals over drinks
and hors d’oeuvres. The FMA has
also had many guest speakers attend
meetings where they informed students about important subjects such
as wealth management, treasury,
and financial data analysis. Select
members also attended the FMA
Leadership Conference. This has
been a successful semester as the
Matt Benning
business world has gotten much
FMA Executive Vice President
closer to students at NIU.
Finance Junior
S&P 500 Options Pit
Chicago Board of Options Exchange
A group of thirteen business undergraduates
accompanied
Dr.
Nicolosi on an annual tour of several Chicago financial institutions
during April’s Money Smart Week.
The outing began with a floor tour
of the Chicago Board of Options
Exchange (CBOE) led by Kevin
Davitt.
After visiting the exchange’s busiest pit, the S&P 500,
the group headed across the
street through the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to view
Chicago Tour
the former Continental Illinois
Bank, now owed by Wintrust.
From there, the group visited the
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Following an informative Q&A
session and short video, the students perused the Bank’s Money
Museum, photographing themselves with a suitcase containing
one million dollars.
Finance/Economics
Senior
Excel Workshops
During the second semester of its
new Excel Workshop Series, the
Finance Department hosted three
hands-on workshops covering a
variety of topics.
The first presentation focused on
Excel basics such as filters, Goal
Seek, Solver and data tables . The
second session introduced functionalities like pivot tables, charts,
and statements such as IF, AND,
OR, INDEX, and MATCH. The third
presentation advanced to macros
and VBA. These presentations
Anthony Nieszel
NIUIA President
Finance Senior
helped students to understand the
importance of Excel in their academics and future careers.
While organized by Dr. Nicolosi and
Dr. Docking, the workshops were
presented by Graduate Assistant
Abdul S. Mohammed. Abdul is a
Masters in Electronics Engineering
who is presently pursuing a Masters in Management of Information
Systems. His experience has helped
him connect well with students and
provide them with helpful guidance
on effectively using Excel.
Each Tuesday night, the NIU Investment Association meets to help
bring the financial markets to
those curious, enterprising students who want to deepen their
understandings of the world of
finance. Meetings are discussionbased and informal, and no question is too trivial! We begin each
meeting with a discussion of recent
financial news and a recap of the
week’s action in our semester-long
portfolio simulation - with cash
prizes at stake for the top performers! Following the news and simu-
Franz Varga
Abdul
Mohammad
MS OM&S ,
Finance GA
NIUIA Corner
lation discussion, two presentations are given by volunteering
members. The presentations, one
about a general topic and the other
about a specific company, are voted on by the entire membership
the previous week. Recent topics
and companies include JP Morgan,
Goldman Sachs, options, and even
Buffalo Wild Wings! Want to know
more?
Check
us
out
at
www.niuia.org. Happy Investing!
After placing in the top 5 in
the Americas on the
Bloomberg Aptitude Test
(BAT) in business and finance in 2014, double major and graduating senior
Franz Varga scored best in
the world in September
2015. The BAT covers 8
topics ranging from math
to analytical reasoning to
economics. With participants from more than
3,500 universities, Varga’s
score beat students from
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, the University
of Illinois
UrbanaChampaign, the London
School of Economics and
Political Science, and the
National University of Singapore. Heavily involved
on campus (e.g., Investment Association, Student
Managed
Portfolio,
among others), Varga will
join Epic Systems in WI
upon graduation.
Meet Our
Students