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I NFOCUS
Magazine of the Financial Study Association SCOPE|FOCUS
Volume 11
Issue 2
May 2014
Sustainable
Real Estate
10 smart building myths
debunked
Jeroen Derwall
MSc. Sustainable Finance
2
Piet Eicholtz
Sustainable Real Estate
INFOCUS - Volume 11 - Issue 2
Content
INFOCUS
Editorial
Word of the Chairman
3
5
An interview with Piet Eichholtz
Smart, Connected, and Green
Top 10 smart building myths - debunked
6
9
12
Sponsor Overview
Meet the SBE: Jeroen Derwall
I want you for ...!?
FOCUS in the past
FOCUS abroad
Sigma Investments
Alumni talk: Rinaldo Zopfi
International Financial Master Class
Belgium Tour
EY Luxembourg
PwC Luxembourg
Big 4 Cycle
Kempen & Co
Pictures
Did you know about the actives
Introducing SCOPE|FOCUS’ Committees
SCOPE|FOCUS Lustrum
SCOPE|FOCUS Cantus
Walking Dinner
Wall Street Party
King’s Day
Active Member BBQ
SCOPE|FOCUS Activity Calendar
14
17
20
21
23
25
26
27
29
30
30
31
32
34
36
37
39
42
43
43
45
45
46
Sustainable Real Estate
The world of SCOPE|FOCUS
2
Editorial
Dear INFOCUS readers
Welcome to the second and last INFOCUS of this academic year. The academic year is almost
over which means that our board year is also almost over. This, and the Lustrum, which we
have had a couple of weeks ago, makes one look back to what has been achieved by us and by
other boards before us. This year FOCUS again grew in quality as existing events expanded
and new events were added to our calendar. The fact that we are a Lustrum board makes
us realize even more how important it is to have a strong historic foundation and long term
strategy in which FOCUS alumni can play an important role.
However, one must also look forward. Not only to the next FOCUS board who just got
announced (and who I wish all the best), but also more generally. All around the world
being sustainable is more and more important. This can also be seen in the Finance world.
Sustainable real estate is becoming more and more important to investors. An interview
with professor Eichholtz will give us an introduction to this topic. Afterwards a report of the
recent Smart, Connected, and Green real estate symposium will provide some more dept.
The last article will show and debunk some common myths of building in a smart way.
In the next academic year the SBE will also launch a new IB master: Sustainable Finance. In
this INFOCUS you can find an interview with the program director Jeroen Derwall who will
give us an insight in this new master in the world of SCOPE|FOCUS part of this INFOCUS.
Here you will also find the regular coverage of our professional and social events such as
the International Financial Master Class, The Belgium Tour and the SCOPE|FOCUS Lustrum.
Next to this, there is a report about an exchange semester in Australia, an article about a
SCOPE|FOCUS alumni and an introduction to our new committees and active members.
Different from the last INFOCUS is that the amount of pictures has increased substantially.
For all this hard work I would like to thank my multimedia committee (Sara, Ulyana and
János).
I hope you will enjoy reading the INFOCUS and I already wish you an amazing summer.
Kindest regards,
Jasper Seuren
SCOPE|FOCUS is the financial study association of Maastricht University for students interested in finance, accountancy and controlling. Our aim is to be the best possible intermediary between students and potential future employers
INFOCUS magazine is distributed freely by SCOPE|FOCUS
among its members and relations two times a year
Circulation500
Composition/Design
Jasper Seuren
Mailing Address
SCOPE|FOCUS
P.O. Box 616
6200 MD Maastricht
Visiting Address
Tongersestraat 43
Rooms 0.012 & 2.012
C.O.C. Number40205432
E-mailinfo@scope-focus.nl
Internetwww.scope-focus.nl
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HOE VER
GA JIJ
om jouw klant
te adviseren
?
Elke ondernemer in elk bedrijf in elke branche is anders. Wij weten dat
je een klant alleen goed kunt adviseren als je zijn wensen, zorgen en
plannen kent. Dat vraagt om klantgericht denken. Want hoe groter je
betrokkenheid, hoe meer je kunt betekenen. En hoe waardevoller jouw
mening. Iets voor jou? Ga naar werkenbijacconavm.nl
4
dichtbij kom je verder
D
ear readers,
ear readers,
The end of our board year is approaching rapidly. It offers the perfect opportunity
to reflect upon the achievements and challenges of the last semester. Traditionally,
the second semester is the most busy one. It is impossible to name all professional
events SCOPE|FOCUS organizes in this introduction, but I want to touch upon the
main ones. Of course, this INFOCUS also contains great stories about FOCUS’ social
events, of which the celebration of our lustrum is the highlight.
The International Financial Masterclass, a relatively new event which has been
organized for the second year, took 20 students to London for 4 days. Although the
organization of this tour remains challenging, it is great to see that all participants
enjoyed the tour. Moreover, the Accounting Orientation day and Big4Cycle
accommodated Dutch accounting students in getting to know the Big 4 Accounting
firms. Finally, our initiation of the Belgium Tour was successful, 25 students visited
Henkel and ABInbev on the 29th of April.
The celebration of our lustrum was a highlight in the last semester. It was great
to see many people from the past, both actives and former board members. The
afternoon, exclusively for our Alumni, made it possible to reconnect in an informal
setting. The gala at night reconnected even more Alumni and offered the possibility
to bring partners. I very much enjoyed this great day, and I hope that nothing but
great memories from this day remain. I also want to thank the lustrum committee,
and especially Carmen Gassmann, for their contribution in organizing this event.
Reflecting on the last semester, it fulfills me with proud to see the quality of the
work delivered by our actives. They fulfill a key role within our organization, and
ensure the quality of our events. Our professional events are only possible with the
contribution of our sponsors. We thank them for the continuous interest they have
in SCOPE|FOCUS and for the strong business relationships we have with them. This
INFOCUS is also a good reflection of the strong connection SCOPE|FOCUS has with
the Accounting and Information Management and Finance department. I am sure
you will enjoy the interview with Piet Eichholtz, in which current trends in real
estate management are discussed.
I would like to end this introduction with a personal note. A new board has just
been, meaning that my position as Chairman of SCOPE|FOCUS will be taken over. It
has been a pleasure and great learning experience to lead this organization through
challenging times. I wish you all the best for the future, and hope to meet you soon
at one of our events!
Yours sincerely,
Marien Pastoor
Chairman SCOPE|FOCUS 2013-2014
5
An Interview with Piet Eichholtz
P
iet Eichholtz is the professor of real estate finance at Maastricht
University and also the chairman of the finance department. Therefore,
he is responsible for all the education and research that goes on in finance
investments here at the University. Besides this, he is an entrepreneur, as he owns
a financial consultancy firm in Utrecht called ‘Finance Ideas’. Furthermore, he
is also active in a company called GRESB (The Global Real Estate Sustainability
Benchmark), which is located in Amsterdam. It’s an information provider for
sustainability in real estate investments of which the university is also a big
shareholder.
You are teaching in the area of real estate finance,
what exactly is it? Can you describe it?
Basically, it’s everything that has to do with financing
of real estate and investing in real estate. You probably
know what real estate is, it is buildings and land etc.
and it’s therefore a huge asset class. You got the houses,
you got commercial real estate, offices, and retail, and
it all needs to be financed in some way. This can be by
mortgages, by property companies or by investment
capital from pension funds. And all these things I study.
Why did you actually decide to teach real estate
finance? What interested you in it?
Actually, it’s a complete coincidence. I studied
International Economics in Amsterdam, so I have a
Master in International Economics, and then I came
here to Maastricht to do a PhD, but I didn’t know
what it would be about. Then one summer we had an
American visiting professor from the University of
North Carolina and he was some kind of real estate
finance guru in the United States. He taught a course in
real estate and I really liked it. The professor told me
that in Europe this whole real estate field is completely
open: there was no good research, no good education
and no good university that devotes a lot of attention
to it. He advised me to think about joining this field so
that it what I did over summer. I finally decided that it
would be a good field for me. So I wrote my first paper
and that got published well and then I wrote a second
paper which also got published, and before I knew it
I was a real estate expert. Completely unplanned. If
this professor would not have been here that summer
I would have a completely different life, and that’s how
your life will be too. You can plan, you can prepare for
things to happen but things happen in a different way
and this is what’s so interesting about it. You don’t
know what is going to happen.
6
Turning to sustainability, it is an upcoming trend in
the real estate world, could you describe it shortly?
I think sustainability is an upcoming issue everywhere
and in any area of economics and finance it is also
important. It’s this important because the media and
public opinion tell investors, like pension funds, that
they should do good, that they should not invest in
cluster bombs or investments which are very polluting.
These pension funds say that they should develop a
policy on sustainability and consequently that is what
they then do. You can say that there are good, nonpolluting industries and bad, polluting industries. The
point is we need many of these polluting industries;
we need fertilizer, we need pesticides, we need oil, we
need gas, we need chemicals, we need real estate and
these are all polluting industries. So, to say as a capital
provider “well, you know, polluting industries, I don’t
like you, I’m not going to invest in you”, you can wash
yourself in innocence and go to heaven but the world
will not be good because without pesticides we die
as we will then not produce enough food. Therefore,
it’s not the right way to approach it. A better way to
approach it is to accept the fact that there are polluting
industries. But maybe we can change the polluting
industry and make them pollute less, make them better,
make sure that they have better production procedures
etc. This is exactly how we approach this issue. Real
estate is a polluting industry because about 40% of the
CO2 that the world produces is produced in buildings
and in the building process. Furthermore, we use a lot
of wood, energy and other materials which are all very
wasteful. Maybe we can do that in a better way! So let’s
measure whether real estate companies, do their work
in a polluting or less polluting way. Then we can put
those companies who do well up there as an example
and say “hey, see that real estate company? They do
really well, they do their business without a lot of
pollution, without a lot of CO2 production, with good
water management etc. They do well in these aspects
and they do financially well too”. Doing so creates a
benchmark, which is what we do – we create these
benchmarks and we do research about the economic
consequences of sustainability in real estate.
What future could you predict for this trend?
This company, GRESB, is the result of our research, it is
the company we’ve set up on the basis of the research
we have done and there you will see that the industry
is actually getting cleaner. It’s moving towards less
polluting practices and companies who produce less
CO2, have better water management etc. So, things are
going the right way.
What are the benefits of investing in this industry?
You can invest in those industries because you see it
as an opportunity to make things better and make
society better but the point is, pension funds and other
investors, are not rewarded for their social benefits but
are rewarded for their financial benefits. Even in the
law, for example Dutch law, pension funds have to invest
and get a return for low risk and therefore look after our
pension money. It is not determined how the money is
supposed to be made. If it can be shown that investing
in green buildings and green real estate companies can
also make a lot of money, while not creating extra risks,
then the pension funds and other investors can make
the money while investing in something good. This is
what our research is all about. It is about the economic
effects of sustainable investing, so the rent, prices and
occupants, risk return etc. connected to the sustainable
real estate branch.
What does sustainable real estate actually include
then?
Everything that is connected with reducing the energy
consumption of a building, the water management etc.
which consequently can lead to reduced costs.
Will your course in Real Estate Finance play a role in
the new Master’s Program of Sustainable Finance?
Absolutely. It will be a required course. There will be
many sustainable related aspects in this Real Estate
course. We think that this Master will be very important
and I think that you should also choose this Master
program later on (laughs).
With your company, do you actually advise real
estate companies how to be more sustainable?
No, we do not advise companies, we only measure. We
send out surveys to the property investment companies,
some listed on the stock exchange and some not. This is
a huge survey, which about 700 companies fill out. We
then know how they do on all aspects of sustainable
issues, so not only the energy consumption but also if
they actually have obtained a sustainable infrastructure.
This information then goes to their investors. These
investors use our information to evaluate how those
firms are doing, by comparing them to other real estate
companies. If a company does not do well compared
to the benchmarks, they approach the company and
use the information to get into a dialogue with them
to improve the performance. This process improves
the real estate industry as a whole, which is a polluting
industry, as mentioned before. If you go to our website
you can see that of the Top 20 real-estate investors in
the world, 16 use our data and are therefore our clients.
We have 122 paying clients, including the biggest
pension funds in Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand,
the Netherlands, England etc. The client I actually
like most in England is the Crown Estate, which is the
real estate investment company of the royal family, so
Queen Elizabeth actually is my client (laughs). I think it
is important is for big companies to become clients of
our company and use our information on sustainability
issues.
Maastricht is the only University offering the
Master in Sustainable Finance, where do you think
this program will go?
If Maastricht starts a program, like the completely
English speaking programs including International
Business, it acts as a forerunner. Right now we are
the only university offering this program but I believe
that at some point other Universities will also have a
program like this. Overall I believe that this program
will become a great success.
Sara Böcking
Ulyana Khoma
Multimedia Committee 2014
7
An interview with Piet Eichholtz
Wij bieden accountants
en belastingadviseurs
ruimte die verder gaat
dan ons kantoor
Dit kantoor heeft een heldere ambitie: bijdragen aan het succes van onze
opdrachtgevers. Wij maken het waar, door kennis te koppelen aan een mentaliteit.
Wij zitten bovenop de zaken van onze cliënten. Daarvoor zoeken wij leuke
mensen met talent en ambitie. Alert, trots op het vak, op het kantoor en op
onze klanten. Zonder dikdoenerij. Ons uitdagende aanbod voor student,
starter en professional vind je op www.joanknecht.nl
8
An Interview with Wim Naudé
Smart, Connected and Green: A Symposium
on Innovation in Commercial Real Estate
O
n 25 March 2014 the European Centre for
Corporate Engagement (ECCE) and the MIT Center
for Real Estate hosted a symposium on “Innovation
in Commercial Real Estate”. The symposium was held
at the Karl Dittrich Hall in Maastricht. After a short
introduction by Piet Eichholtz, Professor of Real Estate
Finance, Maastricht University, the first presentations
focused on innovations in measurement and measuring
innovation.
Benchmarking Innovation
David Geltner, Professor of Real Estate Finance, MIT,
started of with speaking about how the wealth of data
about price dynamics in the stock market greatly aids
investments in equity and therefore helps investors to
invest.
In order to replace “unknown unknowns” with
“known unknowns” and “uncertainty” with “risk” there
is a need to develop data about price dynamics for real
estate investments similar to that of stock price indexes.
However, commercial real estate asset price indexing is
much tougher than stock price indexing as one has to
rely on very different based indexes such as the stock
market, transaction prices and appraisals.
The graph on this page gives you a quick
overview
about
available indexes for
real estate pricing
in the United States.
The “NCREIF NPI”
is an index for the
appraised value of
a sample of 7000
properties.
The
“NCREIF TBI” is a
first
transactionbased index with
the same sample
of properties. The
“Moodys/RCA CPPI
is based on a much
lager sample and
indicates the repeatsale value of 100000
properties. Finally,
the
FTSE/NAREIT
PureProperty index
is a daily-updated
A Symposium on Innovation in Commercial Real Estate
index which is based on the stock price of different real
estate investment trusts (REIT).
If you want to learn more about David Geltner’s
presentation regarding this topic and a recent project
by Eurostat “International Handbook of Commercial
Property” visit the link at the end of this article to view
his presentation.
The Value of innovation
The next session of presentations dealt with the
market demand and the value of today’s innovations.
Nils Kok, who is an Associate Professor in Finance and
Real Estate at Maastricht University and also a founder
of the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark
(GRESB) held a more empirical based presentation, in
which he presented evidence for the good performance
of sustainable real estate. In the United States the
residential and commercial property sector consumes
74% of total US electric consumption. In order to
give incentives to efficiently reduce overall energy
consumption it is needed to provide information on the
energy efficiency of buildings to the public. In a market
with perfect information, less efficient buildings will be
less appealing to the market, stimulating their owners
9
Smart, Connected and Green: A Symposium on Innovation in Commercial Real Estate
to improve the efficiency through better management
and maybe capital investments in equipment and the
quality of the building. Eventually this leads to lower
energy consumption, insures against possible price
increases and also promotes higher transaction prices.
A research paper by Piet Eichholtz, Nils Kok
and John Quigley even found evidence that green
properties generate economic premiums for investors.
Rent premiums are 5% for LEED-certified and 3%
for Energy-Star-certified building. The same holds
for transaction prices with 11% and 19% premiums,
respectively.
You can find more about Nils Kok on his website
www.nilskok.com. If you have a deeper interest in the
research by Piet Eichholtz, Nils Kok and John Quigley
read their journal article “Doing Well by Doing Good?
Green Office Building”.
Getting Connected
A truly inspiring presentation was held by
Thies Lindenthal, who is currently doing his
postdoctorate at MIT after graduating with
a PhD from Maastricht University in 2011.
To put it simple, he took research in real
estate into a completely new perspective.
His presentation focused on virtual space,
specifically Internet domain names. One
might ask: what does this have to do with
real estate? In fact it is possible to transfer
established frameworks in real estate to
the internet in means of location, proximity,
traffic, connectivity, substitution and so on.
In his academic paper “Valuable Words: The
Price Dynamics of Internet Domain Names”
he states that “[a] domain name provides
a virtual street address for any website or
service on the Internet. It is comparable to
a tract of land on which a business or just
a private homepage can be built on. This
space-network analogy is as old as the World
Wide Web and numerous terms related to
the Internet exhibit a spatial connotation:
Labels for technical network addresses,
for instance, are called domains, users
are visitors, Internet browsers have been
baptized Navigator or Explorer, websites
are home pages, users communicate in chat
10
rooms – the list can be easily extended.”
In 2011 Thies Lindenthal launched a project
named “IDNX”, which actually is the first-ever domainprice index. By now IDNX used the data of more
than 260,000 domain transactions since 2006 and is
updated on a monthly basis. This index will prove to
give another window into the economy, just like stock
indexes give now.
Find more about the project on www.idnx.com
and www.lindenthal.eu
If you want to read more about the presentations
or check out one of the other great presentations
(by Peter Hobbs, Andrea Chegut, Everett Thompson,
Karsten Spengler, Tomas Zoellner, Dirk Brounen et al.)
that took place during the event visit www.corporateengagement.com/research/110
János Berghorn
A Symposium on Innovation in Commercial Real Estate
An Interview with Thomas Feldbrügge
Eigen vermogen
Wat ik wil? Ik wil de beste worden in
cijfers zonder zelf een nummer te zijn...
Je hebt ambities. Je wilt jezelf op eigen wijze ontplooien. Vooruit, zelfs nummer 1 worden. Maar niet zonder zelf
ontcijferd te raken. Want je presteert het beste bij een onderneming waar jij je thuis voelt. In Koenen en Co zul
je veel van jezelf terugzien. Ook wij hebben ons op geheel eigen wijze ontwikkeld. Professioneel én persoonlijk.
In een regio waarin we ons thuis voelen. Kortom, Koenen en Co is een succesvolle organisatie die veel van
je vraagt. Maar daar ook veel voor teruggeeft. Iets waar je elke dag op kan rekenen.
Koenen en Co is dé vooruitstrevende totaaladviseur voor zakelijk Zuid-Nederland. Samen met de klant bekijken
onze adviseurs alle kanten van zijn organisatie om zo te komen tot een succesvolle oplossing.
Volg ons ook op:
www.koenenenco.nl
twitter: #KoenenenCo
facebook: Koenen en Co
linkedin: group Koenen en Co
en company Koenen en Co
Top 10 Smart Building Myths-Busted
S
mart buildings have been proven to save energy,
streamline facilities management and prevent
expensive equipment failures. Yet to many property
owners and investors, the value of smart buildings
remains a mystery. The reality is that in most buildings,
one can demonstrate a strong business case for strategic
investments in smart building systems and management
technologies. Not everyone, however, is aware that the
tremendous advantages of today‘s affordable smart
building management technologies easily justify the cost.
facilities personnel. Knowing the right time to repair or
replace equipment extends machinery life and reduces
facility staff, operations and replacement costs. More
dramatically, smart building management systems
can prevent full-scale building system failures, which
potentially could embarrass a Super Bowl stadium host
or prove life-threatening in a hospital or laboratory.
Below are 10 smart building myths that deserve to be
put to rest
Smart buildings maximize energy efficiency from
building systems and ensure air quality, while a
complete green sustainability program includes
strategies beyond building automation systems. So,
while smart and green features may overlap, they are
not identical concepts. The Continental Automated
Buildings Association (CABA) delves deeper into
the difference in the report „Bright Green Buildings:
Convergence of Green and Intelligent Buildings“ (PDF).
10. Smart building technologies are expensive
Smart building technology investments typically pay
for themselves within one or two years by delivering
energy savings and other operational efficiencies. Some
smart building management programs have generated
a positive return on investment within several months.
9. Smart buildings are only about energy
A smart building management system often can detect
when a piece of equipment is close to failure and alert
12
8. Smart buildings and green buildings are the same
thing
7. Industrial facilities or laboratories can‘t become
smart buildings
All building types, including residential and commercial,
can be built or retrofitted to become highly automated
and smart. As illustrated in this infographic (PDF), even
highly specialized facilities such as laboratories can be
outfitted with smart building technologies.
Top 10 Smart Building Myths—Busted
6. Smart buildings can only be new buildings
Some of the smartest buildings in the world are not new
at all, but have demonstrated the return on investment
in smart technologies. The Empire State Building, for
example, has exceeded projected energy savings for the
second consecutive year following an extensive phased
retrofit begun in 2009.
5. Smart building technologies are not interoperable
In the past, building automation equipment and controls
were designed as proprietary systems. However,
affordable new technologies, such as wireless sensors,
now make it possible to gather data from disparate
systems produced by any manufacturer.
4. Smart systems don‘t make a building more
attractive to tenants
Anything that improves energy efficiency, reduces
occupancy cost and improves productivity is valuable
to tenants, as numerous studies and surveys attest.
Tenants and their advisors increasingly expect smart
building features such as zoned HVAC, sophisticated
equipment maintenance alert systems and advanced
security systems.
3. Without a municipal smart grid, a building can‘t
really be smart
It‘s true that smart buildings gain functionality when
supported by advanced electrical grids installed by
municipalities and their utility company partners. But
even without a smart grid, owners and investors can
draw a wide range of benefits from smart buildings and
a smart building management system that can monitor
entire property portfolios.
not humanly possible. On one client site, for example,
a smart building management system diagnosed a
programming problem that had been undetected for 15
years, enabling facility managers to resolve a recurring
equipment malfunction.
1. Smart buildings are a no-brainer
This myth isn‘t a myth at all -- it‘s actually true. As
affordable new technologies are adopted, tenants
are beginning to expect smart building features, and
owners and investors are beginning to realize the
return on investment in smart systems.
Leo O’Loughlin is senior vice president
of energy and sustainability services
at Jones Lang LaSalle.
Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated is a professional services
and investment management company specializing in
real estate. Global headquarters are located in Chicago,
with an operational remit covering the Americas regional
market. Sub-headquarters operate in London (covering
the Europe, the Middle East and Africa regional market)
and Singapore (covering the Asia Pacific regional
market).
2. Smart buildings are complicated to operate
Combined with a smart building management system,
a smart building is often easier to operate and maintain
than a building that lacks automated systems. A smart
building management system can integrate workorder management applications; pull equipment
repair and maintenance data into performance
analytics; and pinpoint equipment issues to a degree
Top 10 Smart Building Myths—Busted
This article is reprinted with permission of JLL from http://
www.joneslanglasalleblog.com/greenblog/?p=4822
1313
Sponsor overview
14
Sponsor Overview
Sponsor Overview
15
The World of SCOPE|FOCUS
FOCUS
T
.he central premise of this section of the INFOCUS
is an extensive interview with an influential SBE
Employee. This edition: Jeroen Derwall. Jeroen
Derwall is assistant professor at Maastricht University,
working for the Department of Finance. He is also
part-time assistant professor at Tilburg University,
and co-founder of the European Centre for Corporate
Engagement (ECCE). His research has covered various
areas, such as socially responsible investing, corporate
social responsibility, empirical asset pricing, and mutual
fund performance.
Why did you decide to follow an academic career?
That’s actually a very interesting question. In 2002
I graduated with a master degree in IB/Finance from
Maastricht University and at that time, right after the
technology crisis, getting a job in banking was not that
easy. So I thought about what do I really want to do?
Do I want to work as an investment banker or do I
want to be a portfolio manager? And also which kind
of institution would I want to work for? I realized that
I probably don’t want to work for just any financial
institution, and it would probably be better to work
for an institution, which was a bit more natural, with a
responsibility for the long term perspective on society,
for example like a pension fund. But I also thought that
it would be interesting to do more research on topics
related to finance. Eventually Erasmus University
Rotterdam offered me to do a PhD with really good
conditions and there were a lot of people working on
topics related to sustainable investments in Rotterdam.
As my job applications didn’t work out well and I really
liked to research (my master thesis also got published
for example) I accepted the offer in Rotterdam and
started my PhD there. After doing my PhD I became a
assistant professor there. What I really enjoyed about
my PhD is that I got the chance to do research and at
the same time had the freedom to explore a little bit
of everything as you have the freedom to travel a lot,
attend conferences and also show your research. I
really liked this and thought, lets keep on doing this.
Why sustainable finance? What do you like about
finance, what don’t you like about finance?
First I would like to point out what I don’t like in finance.
I don’t like the very short-term view that people want
Meet the SBE
Photo by Wim Smeets
Meet the SBE
to sell recklessly, only because they want to have their
bonus in the morning, no matter how bad the product
actually is. I did not want to work in that kind of industry
and as you know that industry completely collapsed
afterwards.
I did want to do something that was more
fundamentally, good for society, basically good finance.
I think that finance should be good for society. When
you make a financially sound decision, as a pension
fund, then you prevent bad things from happening to
society and also bad things from happening financially.
I thought that, when I really want to do that in my daily
work then I would have to work for pensions funds or
start my own company. So this is what I kind of did with
the “European Centre for Corporate Engagement”. We
do all kind of things related to sustainable finance and
a lot of research. But we do it together with the pension
industry. The pension fund APG was a big partner for
a couple of years, we work together with Deutsche
Bank, on our website www.corporate-engagement.com
you can see all our current partners. I really like this
collaboration because that’s a win-win. For us because
of the research and the data we get but also for society
as we come up with results that can be used within the
companies.
You are the coordinator of the new IB/Sustainable
Finance master program, could you tell us a bit
more about that?
With this master we actually teach Finance. So it’s not
Finance or Sustainability, it is Finance and Sustainability.
You will learn everything about finance, but as you
have a more in-depth interest in sustainability, you will
learn how that plays a role in finance. On top of that
you will get confronted with how sustainability gets
17
Meet the SBE
affected by everything that you normally think about
finance at a master level. So for example you will have
to learn about portfolio theory and how to build the
optimal portfolio with a particular target return, with
considering active return versus active risk. But then
you will also want to know, what happens when we add
the sustainability issue in the calculations. So first we
study the mainstream things that you need to know,
like what is portfolio optimization and then, what role
can sustainability play? That’s basically our approach.
That also means that our requirements will be very
similar to the other IB/Finance program in terms of
GMAT or study workload. Another thing where we put
a lot of preparation in is that apart from the regular
tutorial sessions and lectures I also add a lot of digital
content, similar to those YouTube-videos on certain
topics so people can refresh their memory on basic
finance topics.
Are there any specific plans for the program?
Double-Degree? Internship? Semester Abroad?
In general, all the possibilities that apply to IB/Finance
will apply to IB/Sustainable Finance. If the double
degree works for IB/Finance, it will work for IB/
Sustainably Finance. So you can do a semester abroad
and also an internship, provided that you already
earned all the credit points required to graduate. With
the internship however we have something on top of
that, which our department set up to attract people to
come to Maastricht. For the first fifteen enrollments,
we guarantee an offer for an internship at one of our
partner companies, no matter whether you take it or
not.
Now the next question is more about you personally,
what is your recent research about?
At this point it’s more about sustainable finance rather
than the mainstream finance. The questions I’ve been
looking at are for example: Does shareholder activism
for sustainability work and what is needed to make it
work? So one of the topics I am currently pursuing is for
example about the unique data on private negotiations
between shareholders and the company. For example, if
a company is public, meaning it issues its shares, and if
you are a shareholder you can officially issue a proposal
to a company. That company can then evaluate it and
18
if it‘s not eligible for exclusion or does not violate SEC
regulations, you have to put it on the agenda of the
annual meeting. However, the problem with this type
of proposals is that they are obviously known. Perhaps
that is why many institutional investors might hesitate
to do that for competitive reasons.
There are quite some service providers who
offer big investment funds, or big pensions funds to
call the companies privately and we need to access
their data to find out what is the added value of that. So
we have all the conversations between couple of large
pension funds that engage companies internationally to
adhere to these ambitions. So we look how shareholder
activism work and how it financially pays off. Another
thing that we also want to know is whether you need
to have a large group of shareholders with similar
background as you to make it really work. If you take
the public shareholder activism approach, you would
need to find out who the other voters are to know if it
will work out or not.
And another question I work on is how material
are environmental social and governmental issues for
companies, for the cost of capital, for the cost of goods,
for credit ratings.
You said before that you worked in different
universities, namely Tilburg, Rotterdam and
Maastricht, what are the most important differences
between them or are there any differences at all?
Every university has in my view a rather unique culture
and a rather unique group of students. So in Rotterdam
for example, the Erasmus University, because it was a
large university, my experience was that the teaching
is still large scale, so more lectures with a large
audience, sometimes with hundreds of students. Also
the workshops, which is something similar to tutorials,
were still large scale. Some of them, in Rotterdam but
also in Tilburg were workshops of 40 to 50 people,
so clearly there is not so much interaction and not
so much workload for students. My personal view is
that Maastricht University students benefit from the
smaller scale, because students have to present each
time which means that you already gained this skill
when you graduate.
So on the one hand you have more workload
here in Maastricht but on the other hand you have
better research skills, better communication skills and
better team skills.
Meet the SBE
You work part time in Maastricht and Tilburg,
where do you actually live then?
I live here, in Maastricht, actually!
How does your house look like? Is it environmentally
friendly and are you a sustainable guy?
That’s a good question! This depends on what you
consider an environmentally friendly house. I actually
bought a house that uses no gas. So my house lives on
earth warmth; the warmth is collected and kept and the
warm air is put into the room if it’s too cold and cold
air is put into the room if it’s too hot. It was originally
implemented by the Servatius in Maastricht and they
decorated many old houses now with these modern
systems so that they use no gas. Nevertheless it is
important to realize about sustainable finance that it is
not possible to be sustainable and socially responsible
in all aspects. It is very difficult to prove that there
is a consumer who is responsible and sustainable
throughout the entire board. Therefore it is also not
the case that you must be a completely sustainable
person in my perspective. It is important to realize that
there are some clear economic advantages with being
sustainable. Many people in the industry are trying to
identify those advantages but it is still not the case that a
company or a person should go sustainable when it will
actually harm that company or person economically or
in terms of value. That is not the long-run way to go, it
should be all about creating shared value.
Last question, what is your favorite finance related
book or movie?
Generally I like books by Michael Lewis. A movie, well, I
haven’t see Wolf of the Wall Street yet, but it is my next
objective. There is also a movie of Liar’s Poker, based
on the book by Michael Lewis, I definitely recommend
the book. Other movies are Boiler Room, or Margin Call
which might are interesting. Another very interesting
movie is The Insider with Russell Crowe and Al Pacino.
János Berghorn
Ulyana Khoma
Finance for the next generation
After the financial crisis, banks and corporations were
attacked for neglecting the long-term interests of their
clients, their impact on society and the environment.
There was an urgent need to rethink business and
finance: to move away from an outdated narrow view
of capitalism towards the concept of shared value. In this
context, sustainability is fast becoming a core part of the
mission of financial institutions and companies.
A long-term perspective for sound financial
decisions
Sustainability means taking a long-term perspective.
It’s about meeting our needs now, without jeopardising
the potential for people in the future to meet their
needs. This IB specialisation brings the principles of
sustainability together with the study of finance. On
the one hand, to make sound financial decisions for
the future, organisations need a good understanding
of sustainability challenges. And on the other hand,
a sustainable society needs a healthy financial and
business sector.
Will you become part of a new generation of finance
professionals?
To move forward with the times, financial institutions and
companies today are shifting their focus towards three
key elements of sustainability: environment, society and
governance (ESG). How can financial institutions offer
sustainable investment opportunities to clients as part
of their business case? Can they make better investment
and lending decisions by considering environmental
and social risks and opportunities? Do corporations
financially benefit from having green buildings? To
answer these questions and more, companies need
the special know-how of a new generation of finance
professionals. Professionals with a strong grounding in
traditional finance, who can enhance financial decision
making by taking sustainability into account.
Learn to enhance mainstream finance by
considering sustainability issues
Sustainable Finance is brand new specialisation that
will be launched in September 2014. It is a world first
in addressing how the study and practice of mainstream
finance can be enhanced through consideration of
sustainability issues.
More information: www.maastrichtuniversity.nl
19
I
want you for …!?
• “Please name two of your strengths!”
• “Do you also have weaknesses?”
• “Tell us a bit about yourself!”
• “Under which conditions do you perform best?”
• “Can you handle the challenge?”
All of the above mentioned questions are very common
in job interviews. What a lot of people do not know:
why are these questions actually being asked? Is it
really just about factual information? Of course not.
A job interview is not about testing your technical
knowledge; instead the purpose is to determine
whether your personal profile and motivation structure
matches the company’s requirements.
Overall, it is about questioning techniques that aim
at extracting information about your personality and
motivations, without directly confronting you with
obvious questions. How strong is your herd instinct?
When it counts, are you able to set yourself apart from
the rest? Is your need for individualism too strong? Or
too weak? Would you consider yourself an innovator
or rather an imitator? Are you high on intrinsic- or
extrinsic motivation? Is your information processing
relatively task oriented or more people oriented? Is
there something that distinguishes you from the rest
(not technically)?
You should be able to answer
all these questions. The more
sophisticated the better; however,
this requires proper preparation.
One instrument to do so is the
INSIGHT-assessment, which is
also quite common among DAX
companies. Based on the findings
of William Moulton Marston
and C.-G. Jung, the instrument
generally distinguishes four
types of personalities that
everyone has but each person
scores differently on these traits,
resulting in different intensities.
Based on a questionnaire, the
INSIGHT personality assessment
analyses your behavioural habits,
your values, tensions between
20
your self-perception and how you are perceived by
others. Depending on your responses you will be placed
into either one of the quadrants shown above. Doing
so, allows you to determine which personality type
you have, how you differ from other personalities and
provides hints as to how to communicate with other
personality types. A further aspect of the analysis is your
behaviour in moments of stress in which you encounter
enormous pressure: How does your perception change
if you are under pressure? What signals do you send to
the outside?
HORBACH offers German speaking students at the
School of Business and Economics, in cooperation with
SCOPE|FOCUS, the chance to create such a personality
assessment. Along with the test comes an introduction
to the assessment and an elaborate discussion of the
results. A financial contribution of €50,- is required.
This discounted price applies to the first 30 students
who respond.
HORBACH Aachen
Kackertstr. 16 – 18
52072 Aachen
Apply until 27 June 2014 preferably via phone!
Phone: +49 241 879 29 0
E: jacqueline.protze@horbach.de
FOCUS in the Past
I
will always remember the first time I was introduced to FOCUS. On my first day of first year I walked
into SBE to be greeted by the then FOCUS PR committee with an apple as a means to promote the German Accounting Tour. For that entire week my apple
a day was supplied by FOCUS. I remember then going
to the FOCUS office and begging to become an active
member because back then first years weren’t allowed
to officially join FOCUS; instead they had to go to EFM
Academy (what is now SCOPE|Maastricht).
Things have changed a lot in the past four years and
even more so in the years preceding my membership.
Most of you only know FOCUS as one of the associations
of the SCOPE framework as it came to be in the academic
year 2011 – 2012. Admittedly, not much changed in this
restructuring. The FAME umbrella was removed and all
associations were rebranded so as to allow students to
more easily identify the various associations. This is
not the first restructuring that FOCUS has undergone
though. In fact before 2011, SCOPE|FOCUS was known
as FS FOCUS and was the result of a merger between
COMAX and FUTURE that took place in November 2003.
Back then COMAX was the association responsible
for students interested in accounting and controlling.
It was officially instated in 1993 when it was decided
that its position as a committee within Mercurius (the
association for Business Economics students) limited
its functionality and growth opportunities. Future on
the other hand was the association responsible for
students interested in Finance. The merger between
these two associations was quite natural as the two
associations were connected through the various
FOCUS in the Past
activities that they simultaneously organized such as
the Maastricht Business Days or, as it was known back
then, the Toekomst in Praktijk Dagen. In addition, both
associations were members of the Financiële Associatie
Nederland (FAN), a national organization comprised of
associations from five different cities in the Netherlands.
Today, FOCUS still holds a seat on the FAN council and
some events such as the Traders Trophy are organized
in cooperation with the other FAN associations.
Over the years FOCUS has become more international.
Obviously, in the 80s and 90s FOCUS was a Dutch
association and all its members were from the
Netherlands; however, as the years passed the official
language changed to English, in line with SBE’s focus
on internationalism. This of course also meant that
non-Dutch students were also welcome to join. While
non-Dutch students roughly translates to German
21
FOCUS in the Past
students, FOCUS had seen its fair share of international
members such as myself from South Africa and Jack,
an exchange student from Australia, who joined the
association last year. FOCUS’s event portfolio has also
become increasingly international as more events
that take place outside of the Netherlands were added
and events in Maastricht were changed to English.
These days FOCUS has events that take place in the
Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, England, Belgium
and the IFO that goes to a yearly changing international
financial center. Even the FOCUS sponsorship base has
become increasingly international and while majority
of our sponsors are still Dutch, recent additions such as
SimCorp from Belgium and Dropbox from Ireland are
just as valued.
FOCUS also has a daughter association, SIGMA. SIGMA
is an investment club, where members can buy in
and the money is then used to buy shares in various
companies, which hopefully earn healthy returns. What
most people don’t actually know is that SIGMA has
22
been around longer than FOCUS has. In the 70s, there
existed two associations, namely SIGMA and BeMa-X.
SIGMA stood for Student Investment Group Maastricht
and BeMa-X stood for Beleggingsstudieclub Maastricht
with the X for - well no one really knows. These two
associations merged to form SIGMA as we know it today.
How SIGMA came to be FOCUS’s daughter association is
unknown especially given that FOCUS was born out of
SIGMA. Because of its nature, SIGMA only catered for a
specific group of students and thus, the need arose for
another association who would cater for students who
were interested in finance in general.
Over the years FOCUS has grown immensely and has
accomplished many things. Our largest event, the
Maastricht Business Days, which is organized together
with SCOPE|3MA attracts as many as 600 students and
45 companies, a feat that was unconceivable 10 years
ago. FOCUS is currently the largest association at SBE
in terms of revenues, number of events and members.
In my eyes though, FOCUS’s biggest accomplishment is
the fact that the entire organization is run by students
for students on a voluntary basis. While some students
become active to boost their CVs, majority join because
they share an interest or they enjoy doing something
active next to their students. Obviously, these students
are rewarded for their hard work in the form of free
beers, social activities and other legendary FOCUS
traditions such as the annual ski trip, the Active
Member Weekend and so much more. And while for
some the time at FOCUS will be but a blip on their road
to success, for others it is the doorway to a whole new
future.
Carmen Gassman
Treasurer SCOPE|FOCUS 2013/2014
FOCUS in the Past
FOCUS Abroad
Meanwhile in Down Under
A
s part of our Bachelor’s program Maastricht
University gives all of us the opportunity to
go abroad for half a year and study at another
university. From the beginning, I have always wanted to
go to Australia and I was lucky enough to get a spot in
Melbourne, which has been rated the most liveable city
in the world for a few years in a row now. Maastricht’s
partner university here is Monash University and it
has been an awesome experience for me so far to be in
Australia and such a large city as Melbourne!
My way to Melbourne
But before I finally made my way to Australia, I had
to fight my way through the jungle of bureaucracy.
Murphy’s famous law “everything that can go wrong,
will go wrong” found perfect application in my quest
to get a student visa. While most people can apply for
their visa online in a simple procedure, the program
refused to accept my passport number. After several
hours in the waiting line for the Australian consulate,
the nice lady on the phone could only advise me to send
in my application via the old-fashioned postal way,
which ultimately provided me with my visa. With this
the problem was however not quite solved, as the next
surprise waited for us at the airport during check in. As
it turned out the employee at the consulate transferred
my passport number wrongly from the application
form and therefore the airport people could not find my
visa grant. After some calls to Australia at 4 o’ clock in
FOCUS Abroad
the morning the entire thing was luckily sorted out and
I could board the first of my three flights to Australia.
Australia
Finally arriving in Melbourne about a day and a half
later, I was first of all struck by the huge difference in
temperature here compared to what I left at home as
it was the middle of the summer here! Even though
Melbourne is in the very South of Australia and the city
has a reputation for changing weather every 5 minutes
and being less hot and dry than the rest of the country,
it still gets really warm in the summer and not long
before I arrived in Melbourne they had just ended the
bushfires outside of the city. Of course I managed to
get a sunburn on the first day I was here. Even though
Australia is a developed country like we have it in
Western Europe and there was no huge culture shock for
me or any significant language barrier. However, there
still are a lot of things that are different here and now
after about three months I am still discovering more
things that seem curious. First of all, yes the Australian’s
speak English, but they sound so different from the
British or what we are used to from television series.
I met several exchange students here from the US and
the UK and I could listen to them having a conversation
with the Australians the entire day, because it sounds
so funny. Second, they drive on the wrong side of the
road and it still freaks me out, because I nearly get run
over by a car every second day (they also walk on the
23
FOCUS Abroad
in some tutorials people still raise hands if they want
to say something. Overall however, I was impressed
with the variety of courses I could pick from and it was
interesting to look into some topics that I could not have
done at home. One of such courses is called “leadership
practices and principles”, in which we looked at leaders
from all kinds of backgrounds and did a lot of exercises
that are aimed at discovering ourselves as leaders.
different side of the sidewalk when they pass people,
which I think I will never get used to). Third, the birds
just sound different here. I’m not a huge bird fanatic
and I wouldn’t have been able to say what our birds at
home sound like, but waking up here in the morning to
the singing birds definitely sounds a lot different than
at home. The biggest difference I have noticed here is
however the niceness of people around. Every stranger
on the street is just so friendly and everyone wants to
help all the time and people I have never met before just
start to call us “mate”. Walking around the city, looking
confused at a map will also result in a helpful person
coming to your rescue.
Uni
As I am writing this I am nearly done with my class time
here and exams are about to start in 4 weeks and so far I
have really enjoyed my time here at uni. The university
is a lot bigger than Maastricht and there is always
something going on on campus, such as festivals and
free barbecues (although the sausages taste horrible
here). I was also impressed with the huge number of
associations around campus that cover about every
area you could possibly imagine. Next to the sports
associations and study associations like FOCUS that
we also have in Maastricht we have things here like the
Monash Muggle Society (Harry Potter), an association
for the appreciation of video games and so on, which all
have movie screenings and pizza nights, so the evenings
never get boring.
I had to get used to classes here a little bit though, since
most are a lot less interactive than in Maastricht and
24
Travels
Luckily my studies here did not take me as much time
and effort as they do back in Maastricht, so I had a
lot of time to discover Australia. I have hardly spent a
weekend in which I had nothing to do as we did road
trips around Western Australia, the Great Ocean Road,
Phillip Island and many many more places. My personal
favourite in Australia so far was Rottnest Island (near
Perth), where they still have the very rare but incredibly
cute Quokkas (a type of wallaby, but only about as big
as a cat). These wallabies are not scared of humans,
come really close and will scavenge your backpacks
for food if you don’t watch out (yes, I’m speaking from
experience).
Overall, I can say that I have had a really good time here
and made a lot of friends and experiences that I would
otherwise never would have had the chance to make!
Maren Ostheim
Congress Committee SCOPE|FOCUS 2013-2014
FOCUS Abroad
Sigma Investments
T
he student investment club of Maastricht University is the oldest study association within the
School of Business and Economics. Today, it is a
daughter association of SCOPE | FOCUS and during its
weekly meetings, it offers a platform for students to
exchange knowledge and ideas related to the field of
investment. Every Tuesday at 7 pm, students of Maastricht University are invited to join for discussions on
different investment opportunities and current news
from the world of finance. If an investment opportunity
seems to be of special interest, it will be added to the
student-managed portfolio, following a majority-vote
from all paid-in members. This transmission of theoretical knowledge into the world of professional finance
is one of the main goals of Sigma Investments.
Recent developments
As of January 2014, a new board took over the affairs
of Sigma Investments. The former External Relation
Officer Timoteo Marra took over the position of
the new president. His team consists of Jacqueline
Hauptmann as the new External Relation Officer,
Philipp Wassermann as Treasurer, Moritz Lingens as
Educational Commissioner as well as Florian Schiewald
as the new Public Relations Commissioner.
As Sigma Investments former broker ABN Amro
restructured their current customer base and thereby
could no longer keep Sigma Investment as a client,
the board faced the challenge to find a suitable new
broker. After intensive discussion within the board as
well as with the club’s paid-in members it was decided
that ING is the best-fitted broker for the associations
purposes, combining relatively low transaction costs, a
Dutch headquarter as well as a direct contact person.
Current Stockholdings
After the change of the broker, the members of Sigma
Investments decided to conduct a re-evaluation of the
former stockholdings and only add those stocks to
the new portfolio that were expected to have returns
exceeding the arising transaction costs. Resulting from
this process as well as further stock acquisitions, the
portfolio of Sigma Investments currently consists of six
different stocks, which are at the moment all generating
a positive return for the investment club. Next to the
Sigma Investments
Sligro Food Group, a food processing and supplying
company from the Netherlands Sigma Investments
is a shareholder of Anheuser-Busch InBev, a BelgianBrazilian beer-brewing and beverage company, Allianz
AG, a German insurance company as well as Intel Corp.,
an American corporation, active in the semiconductor
chip making industry. Just recently, the paid-in members
of Sigma Investment also decided to invest beyond their
common investment horizon of pure equity stocks and
to find other investment opportunities. This resulted in
the investment into the Euro Aggregate Bonds ETF as
well as the EU Corporate Bond ETF.
Latest Events
Next to the weekly meetings, the board of Sigma
Investments tries to bring all members of the student
investment club together in both a social as well as
a professional environment. In period four, a large
number of students took part in the semi-annual pool
competition, where the members had the chance to
become acquainted with each other. In addition to that,
Sigma Investment organized a wine tasting.
The main event of the year took place in April 2014,
where selected members of Sigma Investment had
the chance to take part in a company visit at the
European Investment Bank. The Luxemburg-based
institution introduced themselves to our members in
a presentation, which was then followed by a rather
informal Q&A session. Here the attending students had
the possibility to acquire new knowledge and get in
touch with the EIB’s employees. Following the company
visit, the whole group of students participated in a city
tour through Luxembourg. This event was enjoyed by
all students, as it combined the possibility of personal
and professional development with the fun that goes
along with such a trip and the time spent in an active
group of students that share the similar interests.
Florian Schiewald
Public Relations Sigma Investments
25
Alumni Talk - Rinaldo Zopfi
A
wesomeness that is what SCOPE|FOCUS is all about! When I became an
active member I had no clue that a study association could be so much
fun! The professional activities, the amazing people and of course the
Preuverij are just some highlights of the world of SCOPE|FOCUS. The latest
lustrum showed again the enormous strength of the association, exemplified
by the commitment of both actives and alumni; resulting in a fabulous atmosphere at the gala.
Rinaldo Zopfi
Age:
24
Residence:
Rotterdam
Employer:
Unilever
Current Position:
Management Trainee Finance
FOCUS Committee:
Activities Board 2011 - 2012
Council of Advice
Maastricht Finance Day 2011
Studies:
MSc IB (Finance track)
Year of Graduation: 2013
Favourite Drink:
Caipirinha
Craziest Food:
Crocodile
Life Motto:
“My advice is - hold on tight and
enjoy the ride” Harvey Specter
26
So, the association is awesome, but let me also tell you how SCOPE|FOCUS
changed my life. After my study abroad in Lisbon, I had an empty CV and
no clue what I wanted to do later on. I realized that it was time to broaden
my horizon and focus on my future – so I joined the MFD committee. I really
liked it and immediately decided to take on a next step; a board position at
SCOPE|FOCUS. To apply for the board was without saying the best decision
of my life! During this year I formed the basis of my career – by gaining a lot
of experience in team building, interviewing, and project management. But
more importantly, I had so much fun and made friends for life who I still see a
lot nowadays. Besides the social part, I got the chance to see so many companies and after this board year I knew – I want to work at Unilever!
So I applied for a job and became Management Trainee Finance at Unilever,
which is part of the Unilever Future Leaders Programme. I started immediately in a “real” job with lots of responsibility in the customer development
finance team, which basically means sales finance. So what do I do? I am the
financial business partner of a sales director, and I basically manage the P&L
of a customer and strive to reach our goals on value market share, turnover
and profitability. How? For example by analyzing promotions – do we need to
sell Lipton Ice Tea in a hamster week or not, and at which discount?
I got my first experience on the Ahold account, and now I am solely responsible for the ecommerce and business-to-business channel. I never could have
imagined that I would manage around 100 million on my own with only one
year experience… This is of course a great challenge and I know for sure this
will not be the last, but I love it! Last but not least, I want to share you my key
to success quoted by my good friend Harvey Specter: “My advice is – hold on
tight and enjoy the SCOPE|FOCUS ride”
All the best,
Rinaldo Zopfi
Your Bridge to London
S
COPE|FOCUS has the goal to expand their reach
internationally by adding more events located
outside of the Benelux. Last year the International
Financial Master Class was set up from scratch to facilitate recruitment in the financial capital of Europe:
London. The fact that London has having a very competitive labour market meant we would be up for a challenge. It required lots of persuasive effort from our side
to get access to the largest and most prestigious firms
when ‘Maastricht University’ is often unheard of. The
idea is for the IFMC to develop over time, gaining more
and more valuable contacts throughout the years to get
a foothold in this dynamic city. This year once again we
managed to attract some very interesting companies to
our tour. Bloomberg, Hiscox, Morningstar and UBS invited us over to their offices in the City.
The IFMC had quite an interesting start when 20 of
the brightest students of Maastricht University were
waiting in front of the train station all excited about
going to London, only to hear that the train would not
depart due to a railway defect. Taxis were called to
bring us to Liège, still being well on schedule. However,
Murphy’s Law struck again as one of the taxis decided
to break down before it even left. From the replacement
taxi onwards the travels went smoothly and we all
arrived safely in London with the Eurostar.
After our arrival we went for a fine Sunday roast at
a splendid English Pub. The first pints of lager were
consumed alongside this traditional dish as everyone
was excited in anticipation of the first set of companies
the next day: Morningstar and Hiscox.
Morningstar gave us a warm welcome in their office and
was the tour’s biggest positive surprise. It was the first
time this major investment research firm organized
workshops and presentations for students, which in the
eyes of our participants was not noticeable at all. Their
staff was energetic as they told about their specific
lines of business and gave us practical insights into
their work by means of small workshops. We have seen
how they aggregate data, analyse funds, distribute their
signature ratings and provide extensive tools to their
customers. During the network lunch everyone had the
opportunity to ask all their remaining questions whilst
savouring a pizza. They expressed a sincere interest in
Maastricht students and will be a promising partner in
International Finan(an)cial Master Class
future years.
Rejuvenated by the great lunch we arrived at Hiscox, a
high-end insurance provider. We dived into the world of
specialty insurance where we learnt (by means of a fun
workshop) what to take into account when insuring an
oil tanker, art collection, kidnapping, public reputation,
literally anything. Graduates that joined the workshops
told us about their role in the firm. For example, one
was a CAT modeler, which stands for catastrophe and
not for what you might have initially thought. They
build models to predict large scale natural disasters
and the potential damage that it causes. There were
plenty of opportunities to ask questions to employees
which was appreciated as this type of business was a
new experience to all of us. Two graduates even joined
us for some pints and relived their student life a bit,
all while answering questions about their company of
course.
The second day of workshops started with UBS. Jan
Mittelstaedt (an UM Alumni) is in the process of setting
up a programme to get a better connection with our
university. We were led to a conference room where
several employees gave a thorough inside of what
their work entails and what UBS does. They gave
presentations about markets, sales, structuring of
products, trading and research. Participating students
had the opportunity to ask in-depth questions about
the subject matter during the presentations to get a
better image of the work. The morning ended with a
short tour through the trading floor, which was quite
the sight.
27
The last company visited was Bloomberg, who rivaled
Morningstar in providing a pizza lunch too. After a few
bites we went to take the Bloomberg Aptitude Test, a
test designed to show what you are capable of with
regard to several financial topics, logical reasoning
and deduction. This was followed by a tour around the
office where we encountered numerous exotic fishes
in large aquariums, large open office spaces with fancy
colours, the Bloomberg TV film set and a futuristic
looking coffee place with innovative snacks. Lastly we
got a quick demo of their main product, the Bloomberg
Terminal.
With the company visit part of the programme over
everyone had the freedom to explore London in their
own way. Some went to find culinary masterpieces
suggested by the graduates of Hiscox and had the most
spectacular Indian food. Others grabbed a quick bite
and went straight for some of the many iconic Pubs to
try some of the local ales. The last two days gave way
for the exploration of London’s nightlife which, even
though deemed lacking, was a fun experience none
the less. I think we even managed to find the ‘Alla’ of
London.
The day after we had some leisure time. Students were
free to go wherever they wanted and many decided
to engulf themselves with highlights. Those who had
already been in London decided to take a stroll through
Mayfair, looking at the extraordinary display of wealth.
Some had a jolly good time at Camden markets, a nice
contrast to Mayfair with lots of strange and novelty
stores, as well as delicious food stands with meals from
all over the world.
28
In the evening we had a rather pleasant alumni drink at
The Old Bank of England in cooperation with the SBE’s
Alumni Department very own Leann Poeth. Students
had the opportunity to speak to a diverse group of
alumni who live and work in London. It certainly was of
added value to hear the different experiences and jobs
that our alumni have.
In the end we had a very successful event with 20
motivated participants, 4 great companies in an
amazing city. We fully believe that the event is able to
gain momentum in the future to give SCOPE|FOCUS a
foothold this financial capital.
Tim Keiren
2013/2014 IFMC Committee
International Finan(an)cial Master Class
Belgium Tour
T
he Belgium Tour is one of SCOPE|FOCUS’s newcomers. For the first time this year, students were
invited to participate in a recruitment event in
Belgium. Most of the already established events are focused on Germany and the Netherlands, which is why
we believed that there is a need to offer something new,
addressing not only the Belgian students, but given
Brussels’s international outlook, basically everybody
who is interested. Initially, the idea was to focus on opportunities in the corporate finance area but in the end
it turned out to be interesting for students from many
different backgrounds, which made the whole tour exciting.
The Belgium Tour took place on 29 April, when we met
early in the morning in front of the SBE to get the bus and
drive collectively to our first destination. With a little bit
of delay due to unpleasant traffic conditions, we arrived
at Henkel where we were welcomed with breakfast and
coffee. After the initial presentation of Henkel’s core
business as well as the tasks and responsibilities of the
two presenting employees, we got an interesting case
to solve. In teams of 4-5 students we were asked to
develop a hedging strategy to reduce Henkel’s exposure
to interest- and exchange rate movements with respect
to a planned acquisition. Following the presentation
of each team, the actual strategy was explained and
everybody was invited to ask further questions. In the
end, existing job and internship opportunities were
presented and everyone had the possibility to talk to
one of the employees personally. With a nicely stuffed
goodie-bag the visit ended around 13:00 when we took
the bus to Leuven, our next destination.
Belgium Tour
In Leuven, we visited ABInBev’s Global Headquarter.
When we arrived, Orsolya Kocsis, Recruitment
Manager of the Budapest office, welcomed us. To get
a more indepth insight into ABInBev’s operations,
we were provided with an introductory presentation
about ABInBev as a whole, followed by a presentation
about the shared service centre operations, specifically
in Budapest, where the presenter just returned from.
Afterwards, students were asked to present themselves
and then to solve a case. Each group had to present
their final suggestion about how to approach the
image problem of the given company. At the end we
were provided with feedback about the presentations,
specifically addressing assessment centre practices,
which ensured that all the students left well prepared
and ready to start their applications.
With the positive feedback in mind, we left ABInBev for
the informal part of the day, the SCOPE|FOCUS dinner
in a restaurant called Hungaria. Burger and beef in beer
sauce, complemented with traditional Belgian beers
in a location that remind one of an old fabric building
created a nice atmosphere for everyone to exchange
their impressions of the day.
We believe that the Belgium Tour brought students
and companies together, creating opportunities for
the future. The positive feedback from all participants
supported the decision that this year’s tour will not
be the last one, but continued in the future, hopefully
addressing students from many different backgrounds
to make it as exiting as it was this year!
Belgium Tour Committee 2013/2014
29
O
EY Luxembourg
n the 20th February 2014, four representatives
of EY Luxembourg, among them one partner, one
person from HR and two from business units,
found their way to the School of Business and Economics. Approximately 20 students joined the presentation, which was very interesting and informative according to the students. First, the subsidiary Luxembourg
was introduced and what it means to work in Luxembourg, as this can differ quite substantially from working e.g. in the Netherlands, Germany or elsewhere.
Some reason, amongst others, is the size of the country,
which contributes to shorter travel times when visiting
clients, and several tax benefits which have a positive
influence on the income. Later the company itself was
introduced and what opportunities it has to offer. In the
aftermath of the presentation, all participants were invited to join the company representatives for a drink
and small snacks in the AdFundum. There, students
were able to ask all the questions they had, whether it
was about EY or working in Luxembourg, in a rather
informal setting. All in all, it was a really nice afternoon
and evening which gave students new insights in the
world of EY.
Maximilian Richter
International Relations 2013/2014
30
PwC Luxembourg
A
lmost two months ago one of the “Big four” came
to Maastricht, but this time SCOPE|FOCUS took
turns and visited PwC Luxembourg on the 17th
April 2014. A group of around 20 students was expected to be at the PwC offices in Luxembourg at nine
o’clock in the morning. The bus departed at 6 a.m. from
the Vrijthof and luckily made it on time. The group was
welcomed by a nice breakfast followed by a general
presentation on working in Luxembourg followed by
an elaborate introduction of PwC and in particular PwC
Luxembourg. After the presentation the 20 students
were split into groups and had to tackle a problem
which involved coming up with a cave rescue plan. All
teams had different outcomes which reflected the fact,
that accounting respectively auditing, is not just black
or white judging. This exercise gave a good introduction
and preparation for the case that followed the delicious
lunch. During lunch, students had the opportunity to
talk to many School of Business and Economics alumni, which PwC is currently ambitiously extending. The
case aimed at simulating the audit process from the beginning till the end. This was really appreciated by the
students as many of them, so far, had only little or no
experience with real life auditing. Later, PwC took us on
a city tour through Luxembourg, which was unfortunately due to severe traffic jams throughout the city a bit
shorter than planned, but still very nice. In the evening,
the group was even invited to a nice dinner at a restaurant outside the city. Here, again students had the possibility to talk to several SBE alumni. At around 10.30
p.m., the group took off again, back to Maastricht. On
the way back, it did not take long until everyone sank
into their seats, processing the impressions of the day.
Maximilian Richter
International Relations 2013/2014
EY & PwC
Big 4 Cycle
O
n the 23rd of April and the 14th of May,
SCOPE|FOCUS organised its annual Big 4 Cycle
and visited the offices of the Big 4 accounting
firms: Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC. The Big 4 Cycle is
a recruitment event with a long tradition. The setup of
the event changed several times over the years but the
current setup has proven to be the most succesful one
thus far. In its current format, the event is spread out
over 2 days and at each of those days, two of the firms
are visited.
On the 23rd of April, we started the day at Deloitte where
we were met by an enthusiastic group of accountants
and a recruiter. The students had the chance to talk
with the different company representatives for a
while before the intensive morning really started. The
students were divided in teams to solve a case and also
listened to presentations of Deloitte employees. Some
of them only just started working with the company
as interns while others already worked there for years
and had already become managers. This provided a
nice overview of the experiences of people in different
stages in their carreer. After a nice and healthy lunch
we left Deloitte and walked to the PwC office which was
only a few hundred meters away. At PwC the students
got some cake and drinks in order to have enough
energy to perform well during the rest of the day. After a
short presentation, the students were divided in teams
and were assigned an accountant from PwC, many of
them were former board members of SCOPE|FOCUS so
it was nice to reconnect with those FOCUS alumni. For
the case the students also had a mock interview with
Big 4 Cycle
some stubborn clients and experienced that proper
communication skills come in handy when dealing with
clients. The day ended with a nice dinner at a steak
house in the centre of Eindhoven after which we took
the train back to Maastricht.
On the 14th of May we went to Eindhoven once again,
only this time it was to visit EY and KPMG. The day
started at the EY office where we received a warm
welcome and everybody was ready to start the day.
After some light conversation the students could sit
down for a presentation and work in several teams
on a case afterwards. Before the great morning at EY
ended we also got a tasty lunch so the students would
not have to work on an empty stomach the rest of the
day. KPMG welcomed us into their offices first and
we kicked off the afternoon with some muffins and a
coffee before sitting down for a presentation of a KPMG
accountant who works at the KPMG Maastricht office.
After the presentation the students were put to work
themselves and had to solve the ‘Bermuda-case’. When
the students were done with this, they could relax a bit
and have some interesting conversations while having
a few drinks. KPMG had one extra surprise for us
which was a dinner in ‘Business Room 1988’ at the PSV
stadium. After the students had dinner while enjoying
the view of the football field, we took the train back to
Maastricht and the Big 4 Cycle 2014 came to and end.
Kay van Zonderen
External Relations Netherlands 2013/2014
31
Kempen en Co
O
n 23rd of April SCOPE|FOCUS and SCOPE|Vectum
again co-organized a Kempen & Co inhouse day.
At noon 20 students stepped on the train to Amsterdam for an exciting day. The day started with a welcome drink on the top floor of Kempen & Co’s office.
As The view was quite enjoyable, as you can imagine.
After everybody was introduced to our hosts of the day,
we went to a meeting room where they gave some presentations. We learned how Kempen & Co started, what
departments Kempen has, what each department does
etc. After these presentations we were given a tour
around the trading floor. Here an employee of Kempen
explained how the traders did their work and we also
got to see how Kempen organizes their Chinese wall.
The Chinese wall is an information barrier implemented within a firm to prevent exchanges of information
that could cause conflicts of interest or insider trading.
Effectively this meant that every employee at Kempen
has a card which only gives them access to rooms where they have been cleared for.
After the tour it was time for the main activity of the
day: a M&A case. The students were split in 3 groups
and each group contained of 2 subgroups who would
need to negotiate about a takeover attempt. One group
was the selling side while the other was the buying side.
First we needed to value the company independently
after which both sides had the chance to meet and
negotiate about an offer price. Once the price was
32
agreed upon each subgroup had time to meet up again
to discuss the next part of the negotiations. All in all
it was a very nice case involving both some emotions
and some (small) mistakes on both sides. At the end of
the case a winner was announced who scored best in
several predetermined criteria.
The day at Kempen ended with a buffet and networking
drink. Here all students had the chance to ask
more question to employees and talk about career
opportunities all the while enjoying some nice dinner
and drinks.
All in all it was a very nice day and every students went
back to Maastricht feeling like they learned something
and met an interesting potential employer.
Kempen en Co
READY FOR
THE NEXT
CHALLENGE.
Mireia, Packaging Management, Adhesive Technologies
Exiting opportunities for Challenge-Seekers
Henkel operates worldwide with leading brands and technologies in three exciting business areas: Laundry & Home Care,
Beauty Care and Adhesive Technologies. Our success is built on constant innovation and people who strive for excellence.
Working at Henkel is much more than just a job. It’s a passion. Have you got what it takes?
Start your professional career in Corporate Finance, Controlling, HR or Process Management and develop all necessary skills
to boost your career within Henkel. We will support you with individually designed training and development plans as well as
continuous mentoring.
Internships
• Financial Commercial Department (140000PG)
• Group Strategy Unit (140000PH)
• IT Infrastructure Management (14000306)
• Group Financial Controlling (1400005F)
• Corporate Human Resources (140001GX)
Direct entry
• Junior Controller Adhesives (140000U6)
• Internal Auditor Finance & Accounting (4232de)
• Horizon Project Management Office (140003FN)
• Controlling (140000PQ)
• Global Process Management (140000P8)
• International Supply Chain Management
(140000PB)
• Junior Treasury Manager (13000208)
• Junior Manager Employer Branding (140000VA)
Meet our campus team if this sounds like your next challenge and get one step closer to starting your new job. Our team is looking
forward to meet you to give you first-hand insights about your personal career perspectives within Henkel. Discover our winning
culture: www.henkel.com/careers
35
Did You Know About The FOCUS Actives?
Did you know that...
…Jeroen Francot has trained archery with international
athletes such as the Dutch Olympian Rick van der Ven
…Florian Schiewald lived on a farm with 2000 cows in
the middle of Nebraska for a year.
…Sjoerd Stooker was forced to pay a Vietnamese
police officer 100.000 dong (negotiations started at
1.000.000) because of speeding while my friend driving
next to me could simply drive further.
…Antonia Schmidt has a hunting licence.
…When Ulyana Khoma was 4 years old she decided
that her dog needed freedom and dismantled the entire
wooden fence all on her own with only a hammer.
…János Berghorn lived in the stayokay hostel for
the whole first month when he started studying in
Maastricht.
…When David Ohlinger was a little kid, his grandma
once asked him what he wanted to become when he
grew up. He answered „a lawyer!“. „Why?“ she asked,
and he said „because they earn a lotta money!“
…Bas Henckens wanted to become an architect when
he was younger. The best thing he ever drawed was a
Pikachu with three ears
…Marie Eichhorn doesn’t always say embarrassing
things but when she does, she keeps talking to make it
worse.
…Naomi Vlaanderen has never eaten an egg.
…back in 1999, a news article was written about Sophie
Xu because she owned a Furby.
…Vivien Gutbrod likes to be called summer
…Lucie Galloway wanted to become a paramedic when
she was younger
36
…Christian Peeters has three nationalities and has lived
in seven countries
…Alexandra Grevel subconsciously happened to learn
the first 15 decimal places of pi by heart
…Juliane Klein wanted to become a truck driver when
she was little, because she loves cars.
…Michael Hennecke once rode an ostrich.
…Julie Saesen always wanted to become a singer, until
she realized at a large age that she actually cannot sing
…Philipp Zumbusch once won the amateur-volleyballcup of the French South-West-Coast, together with his
team
…Paul Nuscheler was too sober during the Ski trip to
open the bathroom door.
…Chantal Küpper organizes and plans the stunts for the
Maastricht University Cheerleading team in addition to
her SCOPE|FOCUS activities.
…Miro Rack loves to play paintball
…Arjun Malhotra was so stubborn as a child that he
once bit his new kindergarten teachers hand because
he did not want to change from his old kindergarten
…Ella Kupelikilinc was the first girl allowed to help
with building the set at the theatre she worked at last
year (English Theatre Frankfurt).
…Alina Engel once had the role of „Rumpelstiltskin“ in
a play in primary school.
…Yvo Velthoen once had a concussion because he
walked into a wall
…Gilles Ysebaert is quite proud of the fact that he was
the most sober person at the active member’s weekend.
…Gilian Penners only talks nonsense when he is drunk.
…Jesper Nilsson played baseball for the Swedish
national team
…Bob Theunissen does not like cheese, even though he
is Dutch
…Anouk Meevis is an extremely empathetic person, if
someone cries, she will cry with you although she is
perfectly fine.
…Julian Cornely loves to use the phrase “happy go
lucky”
…Lennard Klein did a 15,000 feet skydive at Lake
Taupo, the biggest lake in New Zealand!
…Anna Helmke always wanted to become an astronaut.
…Sara Böcking’s family has so many animals, including
two dogs, a cat, rabbits, guinea pigs and two horses
while she doesn’t even live on a farm.
Did You Know About the FOCUS Actives?
W
ithout our active members we are nowhere. They organize and take care of (most) operational issues
of our events. Therefore, we proudly present to you all new SCOPE|FOCUS committees. In the middle
of this academic year, SCOPE|FOCUS recruited new active members for the following committees: Big
4 Recruitment Dinner, Maastricht Finance Day, SCOPE|FOCUS Congress, Regional Tour, Frankfurt Banking Tour,
Social Activities Committee, and the Multimedia Committee.
Big 4 Recruitment Dinner
17th September 2014
Bob Theunissen
Maastricht Finance Day
8th October 2014
Anouk Meevis - Franziska Bose - Rick Clerx
Alexandra Rudolph - Nora Burre - Bas Henckens
SCOPE|FOCUS Congress
5th November 2014
Marie Eichhorn - Yvo Velthoen - Alexandra Grevel
Miro Rack - Vivien Gutbrod - János Berghorn
37
Regional Tour
12th - 13th November 2014
Jeroen Francot - Lisa van der Laan
Frankfurt Banking Tour
19th - 21st November 2014
Chantal Küpper - Florian Schiewald - Julie Saesen
Multimedia Committee
2nd Semester
János Berghorn - Sara Böcking - Ulyana Khoma
Jasper Seuren
Social Activities Committee
2nd Semester
Julian Neuhaüsel - Lucie Galloway - Jesper Nilsson
Arjun Malhotra - Joan Kettelhack - Naomi Vlaanderen
38
SCOPE|FOCUS Lustrum
O
n Saturday, May 3rd a bus full of former and
current SCOPE|FOCUS board members and
actives headed towards the beautiful Kasteel de
Hoogenweerth in the south of Maastricht. Not knowing
what to expect, the group was greeted by the organizing
committee of the Lustrum, Carmen Gassmann, Annora
de Rijck, Pascal Lelkens, and Luc Houben. After
welcoming everyone on this sunny afternoon, Carmen
revealed what would be the challenge of the next couple
of hours.
In the yard of the castle several targets of different size
and format were set up each to be shot at with a different
kind of weapon, i.e. bow and arrow, crossbow, blowgun,
and air rifle. The setting was perfect for all the Robin
Hoods and William Tells to feel like being set back in
time. What looked difficult in the beginning turned out
to be a doable task, at least for most of the shooters;
probably not because everyone was really experienced,
but because the people from the event company were
quite helpful and we were all standing pretty close to
our targets. It was great to try out all these different
weapons and to learn how different they are in terms
of aiming and shooting. Almost all groups scored pretty
high with the air rifle, for example, but the blow gun
and crossbow turned out to be pretty difficult to handle.
Since it was a competition, there had to be a winner
and all participants were split up into four groups, each
groups shooting with one kind of weapon at a time.
This way everyone could practice his or her skills with
each of the four weapons. One thing everyone definitely
learned during that afternoon was that shooting is not
as easy as it always looks like in the movies.
After about two hours of shooting, we had a winner. It
is arguable whether that group won because they had
the most members and thus scored the most points or
because they were really skilled. Nevertheless, all the
participants enjoyed this great Saturday afternoon
activity and were already excited for the party that
should take place two hours later. After reconnecting
with other SCOPE|FOCUS alumni outside the respective
shooter groups over some Vlaai, everyone went back to
Maastricht to get ready for the party.
In the evening, the alumni were joined by current actives,
the other SCOPE boards and some university affiliates as
we celebrated SCOPE|FOCUS‘ 10th anniversary in style
SCOPE|FOCUS Lustrum
at Kasteel de Hoogenweerth. With a blue Prosecco to
toast with, Luc Houben welcomed the guests and after
a small introduction of the current board the gala was
ready to start. During the evening, guests were treated
to a four course walking dinner starting off with a
gourmet burger, followed by a delicious asparagus
soup, braised beef and ending with a devious dessert,
which looked like a Frikandel Speciaal but was actually
chocolate mousse and strawberry sauce.
During dinner the guests had the chance to catch up and
get to know each other. After dinner, Esther Paulissen,
a former board member shared her memories and
stories about her time at SCOPE|FOCUS. This was
followed by a speech from Marien, during which he
updated the alumni on SCOPE|FOCUS as it stands today
and the direction it will hopefully take in the future.
This Lustrum was extra special as during the evening
Esther, was honoured for her many years of dedication
and loyalty to SCOPE|FOCUS having been active, board
and council of advice member since 2003. The evening
ended with a huge party as NoiZZ, a pop rock cover
band from Limburg, captured the hearts of our guests
and brought them to their feet. To commemorate this
evening and ten amazing years of SCOPE|FOCUS each
guest was gifted a Lustrum book and in return share
their memories in our book of memoirs. Unfortunately,
this legendary Lustrum did have to come to an end, but
we look forward to the next exciting and surprising five
years of SCOPE|FOCUS.
Raphael Teufel & Lisa Ratz
39
40
41
SCOPE|FOCUS Cantus
the actives employed another tactic to avoid having
to be lead singer: he casually went to the toilet for 10
minutes thinking nobody would notice.
S
COPE|FOCUS has some fantastic social events but a
FOCUS cantus always proves to be one of the most
memorable events. After rehearsing for the cantus
at this year’s Active Member Weekend, everybody was
ready to use their voices for something else than calling
companies.
Despite these few disappointments most people gave
it everything they got and showed the true cantus
spirit. They sang together, laughed together and drank
together. Many songs later, when the beer had done its
work and the throats were soar because singing slowly
turned into shouting during the night, the Praesidium
ended the cantus. Afterwards the party continued in
the Preuverij for some people while others went home
in order to be able to be fruity again in next morning’s
tutorial.
Kay van Zonderen
External Relations SCOPE|FOCUS 2013-2014
When it was February 25th and the big night finally
arrived, excited actives and board members gathered in
the Boschpoort for the cantus. While some people were
finishing the final preparations for the cantus, others
used that time to practice their high notes one last
time. Kay functioned as Praeses while Pascal took on
the role of Procantor. For those who never attended a
Cantus before the rules and regulations were explained
and everybody was strongly advised to remember
those rules well since the Praesidium was planning
on ruling with an iron fist. The cantus started with the
official part in which we sang the Wilhelmus and the Io
Vivat. The Praesidium was more than satisfied with the
heart everybody put into their singing. Once everyone’s
throats were warmed up by the first few songs and
lubricated by golden motor oil, the real classics like
‘The Wild Rovers’ and ‘Angels’ echoed beautifully
through the bar.
Of course there are always people who think that it will
not be noticed if they are joking during the songs or do
not participate properly. Luckily, the Praesidium knew
of which people such behaviour could be expected
and kept a close eye on them. Now we expect that
those people do not wish to be publicly shamed and
we respect their anonymity. Therefore we will not tell
you that Rick and Bob were among those who didn’t
perform according the high FOCUS standards. One of
42
SCOPE|FOCUS Cantus
T
Walking Dinner
he Walking Dinner is a traditional event
SCOPE|FOCUS organizes in order to introduce
new active members to the association. For the
people who have been recruited in February, it is the
first social activity, which also makes it a really popular
event. On the 20th of March, we had our second edition
for this academic year. The board members form teams
to prepare three courses for the active members. Due to
the high amount of subscriptions, Antonia Schmidt and
Tim Keiren were asked to help out, so we could form a
fourth team. The active members are split into groups,
who will then move from location to location, getting
different types of food at every course. This edition, we
had the following themes:
•
•
•
•
Mountain Feeling (Austrian food)
All American
Fiesta Mexicana
Ni Hao, Hollanda
As a fourth course, we ended in the Preuverij to have
some more of the liquid gold called Brand beer. All in
all, the night was a lot of fun, we had some amazing
food and great theme-adjusted drinks. We were very
happy to host over 50 active members. Thanks to you
all for your enthusiasm!
Walking Dinner & Wall Street Party
A
Wall Street Party
t the end of April it was time for another
legendary social event of SCOPE|FOCUS: The
Wallstreet Party. Because of the huge success
in February, we decided to return to D‘n Hiemel for
this edition. The doors first opened at 21:30 for the
participants and volunteers of the International Case
Competition @ Maastricht. Around 22:30 the first
Maastricht University students decided to test their
investment skills. Squat City was so kind to provide
the students with some great tunes. During the night
they slowly turned it up and managed to get the crowd
going hard. Approximately 400 students joined us for
this exciting evening, partying until 2:00. D‘n Hiemel
provided several different shots, which ensured a great
Return on Investment for most attendees.
Concluding, the Wallstreet party was a great success
yet again. No one made any bad trades (as if that is even
possible), which was clearly visible on everyone‘s faces.
Unfortunately this was the last edition for this year, but
the plan is to have another one during fall, so keep your
eyes open after summer.
43
Kunnen we jou een balans
totaal van 100 miljard
toevertrouwen?
Met een eigen vermogen van ruim €10 miljard en een premieomvang
van €20 miljard zijn we het grootste verzekeringsbedrijf van Nederland.
Dat betekent een enorme verantwoordelijkheid als Financieel Management
Trainee bij Achmea. Een uitstekende start van een veelbelovende carrière
bij Achmea. Kijk op www.werkenbijachmea.nl voor meer informatie.
Kunnen we jou
onZe Klanten
toevertrouwen?
solliciteer als Financieel management trainee
44
AGIS
AVÉ RO ACH MEA
C E N T R A A L B E H E ER A C H M E A
FBTO
I N T E R PO L I S
Z I LV E R E N K RU I S A C H M E A
T
King’s Day
his year SCOPE|FOCUS decided to celebrate the
most awesome Dutch holiday, the King’s Day.
For the non-Dutch students this event is there to
celebrate the birthday of King Willem Alexander.
Together with 12 motivated Actives and 2 orange board
members SCOPE|FOCUS went to Eindhoven to celebrate
this special day. Trying to be as much in colour as
possible, we managed to stand out of the crowd by far
even though we only had three real Dutchies with us.
Arriving in Eindhoven we just had a small pit-stop at
McDonalds and then headed to one of the free festivals
there. The rest of the day was just about dancing, taking
selfies and having as much fun as possible. The beats
and music were awesome and so was the atmosphere.
This day was not only about celebrating the King’s
birthday, but also about trying to look as awful as
possible not only with our clothes but also with our
special dance moves.
For SCOPE|FOCUS this was another awesome and very
special social event. It was really nice to get to know the
new Actives even better and it was a fun day to share
some funny secrets.
Kings Day & Active Member BBQ
O
Active Member BBQ
n the 2nd of May the actives and board gathered
at Café Aux Arcades for a FOCUS classic: an active
member barbeque. More than 40 actives came to
enjoy the bbq skills of our fleischmaster Marien.
Everybody ate until their bellies were full from both
the delicious meat and the beers that were provided
throughout the evening. After dinner some games were
played. In one corner of the café this meant that some
actives and board member played “het bierspel”. This
ended up to be quite hilarious as some of the challenges
of the game were to dance with another participant and
spin several rounds all the while consuming beer.
After this nice barbeque all the actives were prepared
for the next day: the social highlight of the 2013/2014
academic year, the SCOPE|FOCUS Lustrum.
The week of 28 April may even go in the books as
the week where SCOPE|FOCUS did the most social
events. This week started with celebrating King’s day,
continued with the Wall Street party, followed by an
active member BBQ and finished with SCOPE|FOCUS’
Lustrum.
45
SCOPE|FOCUS Activity Calendar
For more information on all upcoming SCOPE|FOCUS activities, visit www.scope-focus.nl or follow
us on Facebook or LinkedIn.
September
Big 4 Recruitment Dinner(17th September 2014)
The Big 4 Recruitment Dinner is an activity for Dutch students interested in getting in touch with the Dutch Big Four
accountancy firms. The event gives you the opportunity to personally speak with recruiters and employees of the Big
Four.
October
Maastricht Finance Day (8th October 2014)
The MFD is the largest financial event at our School of Business and Economics. During the day we will be welcoming
at least 11 major companies who are actively looking for new employees. On a day with challenging workshops, one-toone interviews, recruitment dinners and a top-notch speaker students will be able to get acquainted with well known
companies.
November
SCOPE|FOCUS Congress (5th November 2014)
Yearly, SCOPE|FOCUS, organizes a congress about a recent economic topic in cooperation with Maastricht University.
Three interesting speakers will come to Maastricht on this day to give a speech about the topic and engage in a lively
discussion with the attending students. students will also have the opportunity to approach the speakers directly and
informally during our network drink. This year’s topic will be Sustainable Finance.
Regional Tour (12th - 13th November 2014)
This event offers students an unique insight into the diverse companies in the South-Limburg region that are looking
for fresh talent! Students will have the chance to attend workshops, company presentations and network drinks, as we
will visit companies at their offices.
Frankfurt Banking Tour (19th - 21st November 2014)
The Frankfurt Banking Tour connects students from the SBE with six large investment banks in Frankfurt and gives
them the opportunity to get insight into their proceedings, challenges and company culture through workshops. Further,
personal contact can be established through social activities after the workshops and possibilities for employment or
internships can be discussed in a casual environment.
Traders Trophy (26th November 2014)
Do you have what it takes to be a trader? Are you ready for a challenge? Then the Traders Trophy Worldwide is the
competition for you! You will have your own trader’s desk, with access to news and relevant information. The Traders
Trophy competition consists of an online qualification round, a university final and the national final.
46
SCOPE|FOCUS Activity Agenda
Thank you all for an
unforgettable & amazing year!
SCOPE|FOCUS Board 2013 - 2014
Carmen, Jasper, Pascal, Marien, Kay, Max & Lisa

as PDF

Transcription

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