Tag: Chicago

GiftAMeal, a mobile app student startup founded by Andrew Glantz, BSBA’17, that turns the trend of photo-sharing into an act of generosity to help feed the hungry is expanding beyond St. Louis to Chicago. In less than a year since its launch, GiftAMeal has funded the distribution of over 4,500 meals in the St. Louis area through Operation Food Search and partnerships with over 115 restaurants.

GiftAMeal’s Head of Business Development and Chicago-native Michael Kaushansky said, “Chicago seemed like a natural extension of our business, and we look forward to providing thousands of more meals to local food pantries throughout the Greater Chicago area.”  To provide meals in Chicago, GiftAMeal has partnered with Lakeview Pantry, one of the city’s largest and longest-operating food pantries.

Jacob Mohrmann (BSBA’16) and Andrew Glantz at a photoshoot for Olin Business Magazine. They will be featured in the Fall issue.

GiftAMeal has partnered with 20 Chicago area restaurants since entering the market 2 months ago.  Initial restaurants in the area are: Perry’s Deli, Halsted Street Deli, Pita Express, The Shamrock Club, The Stained Glass, The Cellar, The Tavern, Fuji Thai, Gilmer Road House, Blue Frog’s Local 22, Firkin, Tina G’s, The Bad Apple, EJ’s Place, 545 North, Tavern on 60, Webster’s Wine Bar, Cross-Rhodes, Nick’s Pizza + Pub, and Salsa 17.

GiftAMeal users emphasize how easy it is to give back on the app. In a user survey conducted in June, one user said,

“I love how easy it is to go through the process to donate a meal. It’s so great having an option like this available to help others!” Another user wrote, “GiftAMeal is an idea perfect for today. I think people want to do more to help and will recommend restaurants that commit to their communities.”

Join the movement to fight hunger in our community. Download GiftAMeal and start snapping photos. Follow GiftAMeal’s story on Facebook (GiftAMeal), Twitter (@giftamealapp), and Instagram (@giftamealapp).

Top photo: Glantz, Mohrmann, and co-founder Aiden Folbe at GiftAMeal partner restaurant Applebee’s.

A few weeks ago, approximately forty-five Olin sophomores and juniors boarded a bus and made their way up to the Windy City. Once they had checked into Chicago’s illustrious Palmer House Hotel, the students had some time to explore the city, be it by meeting up with friends or sampling some authentic deep-dish pizza.

Guest Blogger: Adam Taitz is a BSBA ’18 student with a minor in Computer Science.

After a goodnight’s sleep, the students split into two groups, consulting and finance, and prepared for the long day ahead of them. While the consulting group made stops at Crowe Horwath, Navigant, and Bain & Co., those on the finance portion had visits at Citi, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Lazard. After completing the visits, the two groups reconvened, boarded another chartered bus, and began the drive back to campus.

The trip was undoubtedly a resounding success. Students on both treks gained invaluable knowledge about the consulting/finance industry, as well as greater insights into the individual firms. Augmenting this success is the fact that students from the Olin Business Council were entirely responsible for the successful planning and subsequent implementation of the trip. Washington University and the Olin Business School are fantastic resources for students to utilize in their search for jobs and internships, be it through faculty or peer run programs.

The Quantitative Finance Club (QFC) organized a Chicago Trek for the Masters in Finance Quantitative track students to visit three financial firms–Discover Financial Services, Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, and Markit–on October 29. The visit provided a great opportunity for the students to learn about the different financial careers and network with industry experts and alumni.

Guest Blogger: Hariharan Pappil Kothandapani, QFC, VP of Communications

We started off early in the morning, for a visit to Discover Financial Services. Here we learned about the different roles, responsibilities, and skills that are required for a career in risk management. We also got an opportunity to interact with some of our alumni: Xuejing (Vita) Wu (MSFQ 2014), who was working with the Corporate Risk Management division, and Sheng Zhu (MSF 2011), who shared her experience of working for the Loss Forecasting team at Discover.

After that we visited the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. We beganvwith an awesome lunch with an amazing view from the 90^th floor of the AON Center which is the 3^rd tallest building in Chicago. Here we got an opportunity to interact and have lunch with the top management of FHLB. The list of speakers included:

Matt Zimmerman, Vice President, Credit Risk Management
Mike Zeifert, Vice President, Credit Risk Management
Amy Shi, Vice President, Market Risk Management
Patrick Sullivan, Vice President, MPF Mortgage Analytics
Steve Thomas, Senior Vice President, Mortgage Capital Markets
Ashish Tripathy, Senior Vice President, Member Strategy & Solutions

Then we had to take a long drive to reach our next destination – Markit. Here we learned about the firm’s recent developments in trading strategies based on social media like Twitter and other Quantitative Research. The speakers here included:

Chris Hammond, Director, Research Signals
Kevin Rice, Assistant Vice President, Research Signals
Linan Bi (MSFQ 2014), Associate, Research Signals
Vivian Yan, Vice President, TCA

Finally, we ended the long, exciting, and eventful day with an alumni dinner, socializing and sharing lighter moments.

“Pragmatic problem solver and consummate professional” describe Olin alumnus Kurt A. Summers, Jr, BSBA ’00, Chicago’s City Treasurer, in a profile published by The Chicago Defender  Sept. 16, 2015.

After earning an MBA at Harvard, Summers’ career began at McKinsey & Company. He has been an investment banker at Goldman Sachs & Company, served as a Principal at Tidal Capital Partners; Chief Financial Officer, Head of Business Development at Balton Corporation; and as Management Director at Ryan Specialty Group, LLC. The decision to leave the corporate world to serve in city government was easy for Summers:

“I grew up in Bronzeville, a neighborhood that has suffered from disinvestment for years. Also in that neighborhood was Sam Patch, my grandfather, who was a close confidante to Mayor Washington. The Mayor was like an uncle to me. He and my grandfather taught me that no matter how successful you are, how much money you make, you have an obligation to use your talents to benefit your community.”

Link to article.

At 7:30 am Thursday, August 27, a chartered bus with 17 Olin MSF Corporate Finance students departed Danforth Campus for the first MS Corporate Finance Road Show to Chicago.

Escorted by Richard Ryffel, Olin finance faculty member and Greg Hutchings, senior advisor Weston Career Center, the students had the opportunity to meet with representatives and alumni from Goldman Sachs, BMO Capital Markets, William Blair, Northern Trust and Belvedere Trading. In addition to the company visits, students participated in a lively industry panel discussion on Thursday evening with representatives from UBS Financial Services, Citadel LLC, Gurtin Fixed Income and Alyeska Investment Group.  The group returned to campus late Friday evening August 28 after a successful learning and career exploration experience.