More than just a G.A.M.E.

April 01, 2019

A woman sits in a chair on a stage between two men talking to an audience.

After scoring an exclusive look inside Nasdaq headquarters in Times Square, students from all over the world spent three days learning from some of the brightest minds in finance last week at Quinnipiac G.A.M.E. IX Forum in New York City.

The Quinnipiac Global Asset Management Education Forum is the largest student-run financial conference in the world. This year’s conference drew 1,500 participants from 154 colleges in 50 countries and 48 states, according to David Sauer, founder, executive director and program chair of G.A.M.E.

Among the college and universities that attended this year’s program were Villanova, Purdue, Rice, Northeastern, Babson, the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis.

“To the students who are attending, seize the opportunity to have conversations with fellow students about global currency or trade wars,” urged Quinnipiac President Judy Olian, a former business school dean at UCLA, during her opening remarks. “And later, pick up the conversation with faculty and market experts one-on-one on these targets.”

Immediately after Olian’s remarks, G.A.M.E. Forum began with a spirited conversation about global markets. The keynote panel featured several accomplished finance strategists –– Ralph Acampora of Altaira Capital Partners; Abby Joseph Cohen of Goldman Sachs; Douglas Coté of Voya Investment Management; and David Kelly of J.P. Morgan Funds.

Overall, 106 financial firms and organizations were represented at G.A.M.E. by 148 speakers, panelists, workshop presenters and student-managed portfolio judges.

Adam O’Rourke ’19, an accelerated dual-degree BS/MBA candidate, served as a student ambassador to David Kudla, the CEO of Mainstay Capital Management and program co-chair of G.A.M.E. Forum.

O’Rourke attended G.A.M.E. Forum as a freshman. He said his finance education at Quinnipiac prepared him to get more out of the experience this time around.

“It’s amazing how much more I understand now,” O’Rourke said. “It’s amazing to have this kind of access to industry leaders and professionals, not just for networking purposes, but also to learn from them.”

Richard Hanley, associate professor of journalism, served as moderator of a panel discussion titled, “The Future of Financial Reporting.” The topic driving the conversation was a recently released Quinnipiac University Poll that found 60 percent of adults believe “the way economic news is reported does not accurately reflect the reality of the economy for average Americans.”

The panel featured broadcast journalists Abigail Doolittle and Kathleen Hays of Bloomberg and John Crudele of the New York Post.

Hays interpreted the poll results this way: “I don’t care if you have a million dollars as long as I can have a decent, regular life. The more that people feel they don’t necessarily have that access or it’s threatened, maybe they get the sense that, ‘Well, the numbers look good and they’re talking about how strong the economy is, but I don’t feel it.’”

After the panel discussion, Adrianna Lovegrove ’20 was named the first recipient of the Alan Abelson Endowed Scholarship for business journalism, a $15,000 award based on merit and academic achievement.

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