UD students join investment organization

11-06-2007

By Grace Rodney

After many months of hard work, three juniors from the University of Dayton's business school, Theresa Fortier, Rob Green and John Krebsbach, were recently inducted into the elite student-managed investment organization Global Platinum Securities, LLC (GPS).
Founded in 2005, GPS is a $200,000 long-only equities investment fund of about 45 collegiate analysts. The group is comprised of chapters from Harvard, M.I.T., London School of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Georgetown, University of Colorado and now the University of Dayton.
'We're not exactly Harvard,' Krebsbach said.
'GPS didn't want to seem like they were stuck up, they wanted to add a well-rounded school like UD,' Green added.
The group's mission is 'to provide a comprehensive investment education to the future generation of passionate and intellectually curious business leaders in an ethical and socially responsible fashion.'
Fortier, Green and Krebsbach, all double majors in finance and entrepreneurship, contacted GPS late in 2006 about participating in the summer analyst program. Only 13 percent of applicants from all schools were accepted this past year. The program is designed to prepare candidates for full membership in GPS and hone skills that will benefit students in finance-related careers and beyond.
After participating in the summer program and going through an intense interview process, Fortier, Green and Krebsbach were put on a trial basis for summer 2007.
'We follow a very stringent policy when considering adding a new school,' GPS CEO Helen Weng of Harvard said. 'We decided to add a chapter at the University of Dayton because the candidates are very qualified with a strong interest in investing.'
One of the biggest selling points the students had was that UD hosts the largest student investment conference in the world, the Redefining Investment Strategy Education (R.I.S.E) Forum.
'After we close our Stanford chapter this year, we felt that Dayton would be a great fit for GPS culturally and add some great diversity to our group,' Weng said.
GPS is highly research-based and requires students to participate in investment research as well as having weekly meetings online with students from other schools.
As part of the summer program, the students had to each perform research on a specific equity. They conducted industry overviews, Porter's and SWOT analyses, and they developed an investment thesis for their stock.
Fortier researched Walgreens, Green researched InterContinental Exchange and Krebsbach researched International Speedway Corp. All of this was presented at their induction conference in New York City over Columbus Day weekend.
GPS is a great addition to the School of Business, especially with the recent naming of UD as the fifth best entrepreneurship program in America.
Starting next semester, an intense interview process will take place to choose new GPS summer analysts and to build up the UD GPS pod.
'We're not just looking for business majors,' Fortier said. 'We want the people who are intellectually curious and are most passionate about investing.'
If you are interested in learning more about Global Platinum Securities, visit their Web site at www.gps100.com. If you are interested in getting involved next semester, e-mail Rob Green at rgreen[at]gps100.com.