JOBS AT SOME OF THE WORLD’S MOST PRESTIGIOUS INVESTMENT BANKING AND PRIVATE
Cutting a path Corsair originated after Jeff Bogan (BBA ’02) asked his professor, now UGA President Jere W. Morehead, to recommend an alumnus working in investment banking. Morehead (JD ’80) suggested Battle, who was with Wachovia in Charlotte, N.C., at the time. “I remember when David Battle and I first discussed this concept,” Morehead says. “I agreed it was needed and would benefit our university and, more importantly, our best and brightest undergraduates. I have been very impressed with the speed, breadth and scope of the group’s success.” Wall Street was a long shot at the time, but Charlotte was within reach. Bogan placed the call. “I would not have gotten my job in investment banking if it weren’t for David,” says Bogan, now head of the institutional group at Lending Club in San Francisco. “All he did was have three one-hour phone calls with me and it made the difference between me getting a job and not getting a job.” Battle, now at Metalmark Capital in New York, and Bogan began working with interested students, eventually partnering with David Williams, associate provost and director of the Honors Program. “We saw the opportunity to provide a support network for the best students to help them find and compete for junior-year internships,” Williams says. The students have secured internships and excelled at them, receiving offers for full-time employment at a rate Battle and Williams (AB ’79, MA ’82) describe as remarkable.
Corsair’s success, Battle says, stems from preparation and introspection. Participants start thinking about their careers and work diligently to develop technical skills (including research and financial modeling) through peer and alumni mentoring that complements coursework. “The goal is to make sure they are more prepared than their competition,” says an early Corsair supporter, Charles A. Watson (MBA ’94), managing director in the Financial Sponsors Group at William Blair & Company in Charlotte. Each fall, seniors fresh off their internships choose the student applicants who they think will be the best candidates in investment banking, sales and trading, and management consulting that UGA can offer employers. Corsair Society 2014 President Sam Kinsman, a finance major, says his biggest obstacle was learning to talk about himself in a way that shows companies how he thinks and makes decisions.
Andrew Ward (BBA ’07), a member of the founding class that named the Society after J.P. Morgan’s yacht, remembers Battle and Bogan coaching him on the phone about interview attire and what questions he should expect. “It’s amazing to see how far the organization has come and how much further it can continue to grow,” says Ward, senior associate at a private equity firm in New York. “It doesn’t take a genius to do what we do, but it’s all about how prepared you are for the interview and how you set yourself apart.” Until Corsair, UGA students lacked the “secret sauce”—starting with the code and lingo—to access interviews and jobs on Wall Street, says Mike Ostergard (BBA ’89), managing partner of Accenture’s health care strategy practice. As he approached graduation from Terry, opportunities in investment banking weren’t available to him. “UGA kids, as smart as they are, never had a chance,” Ostergard says.
Vienn Kim (BBA ’11) speaks during the reunion’s breakfast meeting, hosted by CitiGroup at the firm’s Greenwich Street offices in Tribeca. JEREMY BALES
DECEMBER 2014 • GEORGIA MAGAZINE
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