Typically, the McCombs students who do reach Wall Street take an unpaved road. Despite the resume reviews and mock interviews in the financial boot camp Training the Street, many navigate it on their own, without a network to make introductions and create a roadmap to getting hired. That was true 24 years ago for George Ackert, BBA ’91, a senior managing director at the boutique investment bank Evercore Partners who is part of Wall Street for McCombs. “I didn’t know what investment bankers were until I’d been a lawyer for a year,” he says one recent night at the prestigious University Club near his midtown Manhattan office. “I realized that’s what I want to do.” And it remains largely true today, underscoring the need for an improved McCombs-Wall Street connection. The board, after all, is still new. Thomas Hamilton, MBA ’16, came to McCombs determined to work on Wall Street even though returning to his hometown of Houston would have been easier. “I wanted
to do something different,” he says. He landed a prized investment banking internship this past summer at Barclays with the help of his own network, which coached him for “superday,” the all-day interview marathon for finalists. “I spoke to my veteran network of former naval officers,” says Hamilton, who served six years in the service prior to business school. In fact, that sort of support epitomizes what Wall Street for McCombs aims to provide.
“WE SHOULD DO MORE” THE EARLY WORK ON BUILDING a bridge between New York finance and McCombs began several
years ago with Dean Gilligan. Initially, he approached local alumni to help organize fundraising events in the city to counteract the university’s decrease in state funding. The get-togethers were successful, not simply in raising millions but in reconnecting alumni to the school. Certainly, some finance executives were already engaged with the school individually. But there was little coordination among alumni, or between them and the school. So when Paul Aaron, BBA ‘85, a partner at Goldman Sachs, suggested to Gilligan that wellplaced alumni on Wall Street come together to lead the effort, the dean was eager to collaborate. “The genesis of the idea was looking at other schools that have a lot of Wall Street professionals and seeing how much connectivity there is — these well-oiled machines,” says Aaron, chairman of Wall Street for McCombs. “We didn’t have that.” He only knew a handful of alumni on Wall Street; Gilligan’s list included more than 50. The two recruited a dozen other top finance executives to create a new board and formalize the alumni support and networking. The call to action — that the school and its successful BELOW: Thomas Hamilton, MBA ’16, was determined to land an internship this summer on Wall Street. alumni should do more — resonated. “If you It would have been easier to return home to Houston, but he landed a prized spot at Barclays. find a Texas alum here, they will be helpful,” McMullan says. “They understand how hard it is.” The board’s 15 members began meeting twice a year at MSD Capital, the Michael Dell investment firm on Fifth Avenue where Howard Berk, BBA ’87, is a partner. Early on, they decided to create a new half-tuition McCombs scholarship. (The $125,000 raised so far is on pace to double this year.) Requiring a financial contribution from board members gives them skin in the game as well as a tangible goal. At meetings, they hear from McCombs — typically the dean, a leader in the development office, and a faculty member —about the latest efforts to prepare students for New York finance. The executives discuss how to be more visible, more useful. Most are now regulars on the school’s Manhattan tours and some, like Ackert, routinely visit the school to spend time with students and faculty. Despite working for competing banks and firms, the members have begun conducting networking events for McCombs students as a group. The first, held last fall at the Wayfarer, a restaurant near Central Park, drew about 60 students, who mingled with board members. “It creates a different dynamic when all of us are together as UT grads,” says Aaron. “It’s a more informal setting where [students] can ask whatever they want.” New York’s financial sector can seem like a foreign country, with its own language (and acronyms), mores, uniP H OTO G R A P H S B Y M AT T H E W S A L A C U S E
