TYLER STOVALL
Revolution of One
The Nation 12-11-21
Tyler Stovall was a professor of history and the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Fordham University. His most recent book is White Freedom: the Racial History of an Idea. He died last week, on Friday, December 10, at the age of 67. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

ARNALDO CRUZ-MALAVE
Many Latinos say ‘Latinx’ offends or bothers them. Here’s why.
NBC News 12-14-21
Latinx proponent Arnaldo Cruz-Malave, a professor at Fordham University, says the use of Latinx “has only picked up momentum with the struggles for queer and trans rights in the past decade both in Latin America and the U.S.”

Denzel Washington Isn’t Afraid To Say “Macbeth” Out Loud In A Theater
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 12-15-21
“… And starting years ago, when you were in college at Fordham.. [Colbert shows Denzel a photo of him in a Fordham Theatre play] there’s your first production in college, right?”

FORDHAM UNIVERSITY

Pilot program offers free access to the internet in Yonkers
News 12 Westchester 12-14-2021
The Westchester County Association [along with partners organizations and institutions, such as Fordham University]is spearheading this pilot project, with a $450,000 grant from a nonprofit called U.S. Ignite.

Spikes in COVID cases among young people hit some hospitals, schools hard
CNY Central 12-15-21
Fordham University has just announced that all faculty, staff and students will now be required to get a booster shot before returning to campus in the spring. More than 20 colleges now require them.

A Trove of Artifacts Officials Call ‘Stolen’ Are Returned to Italy
The New York Times 12-15-21
The Museum of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Art at Fordham University surrendered roughly a hundred items, including this hydria, or water jar, depicting the deeds of Hercules.

SCHOOL OF LAW FACULTY

BENNETT CAPERS
The inequality, frustration, suffering and work that led to 2020’s protests
The Washington Post 12-10-21
Bennett Capers is a professor of law at Fordham Law School and the director of the Center on Race, Law and Justice. He is the author of the forthcoming book “The Prosecutor’s Turn.”

ZEPHYR TEACHOUT
Zephyr Teachout exits race for New York attorney general
AP News 12-12-21
Fordham University law professor Zephyr Teachout has officially dropped out of the race to be New York’s attorney general, days after incumbent Letitia James decided to seek reelection.

ZEPHYR TEACHOUT
Look Out, Big Tech, We’re Coming for You
New Republic 12-10-21
Zephyr Teachout is a professor at Fordham University School of Law, and the author of Corruption in America (2014) and Break ‘Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom From Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money (2020).

KAREN GREENBERG
Here’s How We End America’s Forever Wars
The Nation 12-13-21
Karen J. Greenberg is director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School. She is the author of The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo’s First 100 Days, Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State, and most recently, Subtle Tools: The Dismantling of American Democracy from the War on Terror to Donald Trump.

LAWRENCE BRENNAN
Navy hearing will decide if a sailor should face court martial for ship fire
NPR 12-13-21
Lawrence Brennan is a former naval officer and a law professor at Fordham University.
“If the accused is truly guilty of igniting a fire that caused damage and intended to do it, that’s a crime. But is the captain, the executive officer, the command duty officer – are they culpable in a criminal sense?”

GABELLI SCHOOL OF BUSINESS FACULTY

KEVIN MIRABILE
Inside Alts, an Email Community Dedicated to the Fascinating World of Alternative Assets
Money.com 12-10-21
“Millennials think about investments that are more aligned with lifestyle,” Mirabile says. “That has put a lot of these asset classes on the map.”

ARTS & SCIENCES FACULTY

ARNALDO CRUZ-MALAVE
New ‘West Side Story’ by Steven Spielberg lessens racism in the original, but not enough
NBC News 12-11-21
“No Puerto Rican of a certain age can watch it without cringing,” says Arnaldo Cruz-Malave, a Puerto Rican professor of Latin American and Latinx Studies at Fordham University.

CHRISTIANA ZENNER
EarthBeat Weekly: ‘Pursuit of climate justice is inextricable from the pursuit of racial justice’
Earthbeat Weekly 12-10-21
In matters of environmental and climate justice, words matter, as biologist and ethicist Christiana Zenner of Fordham University said in a presentation about humanitarian action and climate change in October at Fairfield University in Connecticut.

TYLER STOVALL
Revolution of One
The Nation 12-11-21
Tyler Stovall was a professor of history and the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Fordham University. His most recent book is White Freedom: the Racial History of an Idea. He died last week, on Friday, December 10, at the age of 67. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

ARNALDO CRUZ-MALAVE
Many Latinos say ‘Latinx’ offends or bothers them. Here’s why.
NBC News 12-14-21
Latinx proponent Arnaldo Cruz-Malave, a professor at Fordham University, says the use of Latinx “has only picked up momentum with the struggles for queer and trans rights in the past decade both in Latin America and the U.S.”

ATHLETICS

Kevin Decker discusses installing Josh Heupel’s offense at Fordham
USA Today 12-10-21
Kevin Decker has served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Fordham since 2019.

Coach Gregg Popovich took over the Spurs in a controversial move 25 years ago
MySanAntonio.com 12-10-21
As for Bob Hill, he went on to coach at Fordham University before reentering the league to coach the Seattle Supersonics in 2006. He was most-recently the Phoenix Suns assistant coach in 2016.

STUDENTS

From schools to sports, a new wave of COVID-19 disrupts U.S. life
Reuters 12-16-21
Chris Johnson, a sophomore at Fordham University, said he would wait as long as it takes. “I gotta get a test to take my final tomorrow,” he said.

ALUMNI

From Litigation to Salivation: Long Time New York Attorney Publishes Cookbook Featuring Over 70 Original Recipes
Fox 40 12-10-21
She [Danielle Caminiti] is a seasoned legal professional who graduated from Fordham University School of Law and New York University undergraduate, both with honors.

Here’s What a Lot of College Grads Don’t Know About Their First Job Offer
CNBC 12-11-21
Mattathia Komla, a current MBA candidate at Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business, said after she got her undergraduate degree, she was just happy to get a job. “I didn’t even know what a typical starting salary would be,” Komla said. “I was naïve to the fact that I could negotiate my salary.”

10 Dividend Stock Picks of Billionaire Mario Gabelli
Insider Monkey 12-12-21
Billionaire Mario Joseph Gabelli graduated from Fordham University’s College of Business Administration in 1965 with a summa cum laude. He founded GAMCO Investors, formerly known as Gabelli Asset Management Company, an investment hedge fund based in Rye, New York.

Ocean Power Technologies Appoints Robert Powers As New CFO
The Street 12-13-21
He [Robert P. Powers] received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting degree from Fordham University and an MBA in Business Administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and he is a Certified Public Accountant.

tarte cosmetics appoints General Counsel
PR Newswire 12-13-21
A graduate of Fordham University School of Law, Iuliano specializes in corporate transactional work and has more than 20 years of experience working at Stone Point Capital, SG Cowen and Dewey Ballantine.

Summer House: Everything To Know About New Castmate Alex Wach
ScreenRant.com 12-11-21
He [Alex Wach] graduated from Fordham University with a degree in economics and mathematics.

Seaman Dankner and the African-American Role in the WWII Coast Guard
The Maritime Executive 12-12-21
One only needs to remember Petty Officer 3rd Class Olivia Hooker, a yeoman and later professor at Fordham University.

Posse Foundation Welcomes New Director to Lead New York Chapter
PR.com 12-13-21
Michell [Tollinchi] received a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish from the State University of New York at Albany, a Master’s of Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and she attended Fordham University where she obtained her Ph.D. in Social Services.

Forthcoming book is a thrilling exploration of policing sex workers in Johannesburg
Human Rights 12-14-21
[India] Thusi earned a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law in New York, and Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and Law & Society from University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Edwards bests D’Ambrosio in special state Senate primary, earns 95% of Cambridge vote
WickedLocal.com 12-14-21
[Lydia] Edwards graduated from Fordham University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and legal policy, American University Washington College of Law with a juris doctorate and the Boston University of Law with a masters of law in taxation.

Skanska Promotes Clark and Doherty to Vice President, Field Operations
ACPpubs.com 12-14-21
She also holds an executive Master of Business Administration in transitional management from Fordham University.

Maple Gold Adds a Second Drill Rig at Douay, Prepares for Phase I Drilling at Eagle, and Announces Board Changes
DMNnews.com 12-14-21
Ms. [Michelle] Roth earned her MBA in Finance from Fordham University.

Matt Lewis returns for third season with Kansas City Comets
The Examiner 12-14-21
Lewis was a three-time Atlantic 10 all-conference selection for Fordham University, where he set program records for starts and appearances.

Denzel Washington’s Next Act Isn’t an Act
Relevant Magazine 12-14-21
He cut his teeth in the title role of Othello while at Fordham University and attended graduate school at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater.

Information Regarding the Sub-Adviser
StreetInsider 12-14-21
Owen [Fitzpatrick] earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and his MBA from Fordham University.

Italy’s Cesena FC Is Set To Be Acquired By American Private Equity Manager Robert Lewis
Forbes 12-14-21
A Georgetown University and Fordham University School of Law graduate, Lewis is fluent in Italian, which will come in handy during his meetings as a new Cesena FC board member.

Michelle Jubelirer Named First Female CEO in 80-Year History of Capitol Music Group
EDM.com 12-15-21
She graduated from Fordham University School of Law with her Juris Doctorate in 1999, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Gov. Mills nominates attorney from Yarmouth as next public advocate
Sun Journal 12-15-21
Harwood, a graduate of Harvard University and Fordham University, lives in Yarmouth with his wife, Ellen, and has five grown children.

OUI the People: A black-woman-owned beauty brand that prioritizes black women
The Grio 12-15-21
“Each OUI The People razor is a modern version of a timeless tool, hand-crafted in Germany with a weighted handle and a special non-aggressive angle,” explained [Karen Young] the Fordham University graduate.

OBITUARIES

John J. O’Connor
Cape Cod Times 12-11-21
He grew up in Manhattan and graduated from Fordham University and went on to earn an MBA.

Brother Thomas P. Lydon C.F.X.
Legacy 12-12-21
Brother Thomas received his bachelor’s degree in 1957 from Catholic University and in 1966 received a master’s degree from Fordham University, both in biology.

James P. Dugan,1929-2021, Former Assemblyman, State Senator, Democratic New Jersey State Party Chair, and Influential Attorney
Insider NJ 12-11-21
Jim was the model of a Jesuit education with St. Peter’s Prep and Fordham Law School in his life. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri. Fordham recognized him with the Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Annetta E. Ducato – Charleroi
The Mon Valley Independent 12-13-21
Annetta also spent one summer studying fashion design at Fordham University in New York City.

Jere Hayden Davis, obituary
Penobscot Bay 12-15-21
During this time, Jere also attended Fordham University and earned a Master of Science Degree from Long Island University.

On Feb. 3, four professors of finance at the Gabelli School of Business came together to try to make sense of it all.

“GameStop: Comedy? Tragedy? or Both?”—an hour-long virtual discussion—brought together Sris Chatterjee, Ph.D., Gabelli Chair in Global Security Analysis; James Russell Kelly, senior lecturer, finance and business economics; Kevin Mirabile, D.P.S., clinical associate professor, finance and business economics; and Steven Raymar, Ph.D., associate professor and area chair, finance and business economics.

The webinar, which was moderated by Gabelli School Dean Donna M. Rapaccioli, Ph.D., delved deep into the vagaries of the stock market that led to the GameStop saga, from call options to delta hedging and gamma squeezes. There was also discussion about whether the meteoric rise of GameStop’s stock price, which was driven by members of the Reddit forum r/wallstreetbets, was a one-off event or the start of a trend of market disruption.

From a historical perspective, it was unprecedented. On Jan. 15, Mirabile noted, approximately 62 million shares of GameStop shares were sold short, which occurs when an investor borrows stock shares and sells them on the open market, planning to buy them back later for less. This was unusual because the company only has 70 million shares, and normally only 5 to 25% of a company’s shares are sold short at any point in time.

Because prominent hedge funds such as Melvin Capital had taken a position that the stock would decrease, they lost billions when investors such as Reddit followers of r/wallstreetbets drove the price to an astronomical $483 a share on Jan. 28.

The story took another turn when Robinhood, the free app that the Redditors had used to make the trades, suspended trading in GameStop, enraging retail investors.

Raymar voiced skepticism that it’s necessary to impose new government regulations.

“Is it best for investors? Who would it penalize? Some of the free thinkers in Reddit? Just think how that would play out when everyone understands how courts as high as the Supreme Court have essentially made it impossible to prosecute insider trading,” he said.

Kelly said the chaos reminded him of a section of the book Pitch: The Perfect Investment (Wiley, 2017) where the authors note that the wisdom of the crowd can be transformed into madness when there is “a lack of diversity or independence of the participants.”

“What we have observed is both a bubble and a crash in GameStop over the past few weeks, caused by the madness of crowds. The Redditors are nothing more than speculators. They are the polar opposite of investors, which is what we teach our students to become at Fordham,” he said.

Kelly did also wonder how hedge funds’ risk management departments allowed them to take such spectacularly risky positions.

Mirabile pinned it on “a failure of the imagination.”

“When the Wall Street analysts were saying that the price of the stock was $14 a share, [hedge fund managers]perceived that the risk of new buyers entering the market was next to zero. What they failed to consider was that retail investors [using Robinhood]could act as a block, not as individuals,” he said.

Ultimately, Chatterjee said this is a warning that leaders should take seriously the genuine anger Americans have for the current status quo. He noted that just 10% of Americans control 80% of the market wealth, so it’s not surprising that the average American is not benefitting from the market.

“We all need an orderly capital market, but unless we’re able to convince everybody that this is to everybody’s benefit, we’re going to see more acts of ‘rebellion.’ The fact that we are having disruptions in the market, going back to 2008, means we are seeing the system show cracks,” he said.

And then there are shipping containers.

Americans are aging and many are downsizing. Online shopping has exploded, leading to a crushing demand for containers used to bring goods to the U.S. from overseas. Turns out, shipping containers are a great investment. And they’re not the only unusual investment out there.

“The world’s a changing place. There are a lot of changes in where people live, how they work, how they consume their entertainment, how they store their goods, and what they think is collectible,” said Kevin Mirabile, D.P.S., a clinical associate professor of finance and business economics at the Gabelli School of Business

“If you dig into this, there’s a lot of opportunity for investors.”

Mirabile examined all manner of quirky, offbeat investment opportunities in Exotic Alternative Investments: Standalone Characteristics, Unique Risks and Portfolio Effects (Anthem Press, 2021). The book delves into asset classes such as life insurance settlements, litigation funding, farmlands, royalties, weather derivatives, and collectibles. It follows Mirable’s first book, Hedge Fund Investing: Understanding Investor Motivation, Manager Profits and Fund Performance (BookBaby, 2020), which he updated for a third time last year.

As the head of the Gabelli School’s alternative investment concentration, Mirabile has been leading students through the finer points of real estate, hedge funds, private equity, and venture capital investments.

“If you look over the last five or 10 years, a lot of alternative asset classes no longer produce the kinds of returns that live up to investor expectation,” he said.

“I really had a desire to search for new asset classes that fulfill the promise of what alternative investments were supposed to bring. These are investments that diversify a portfolio.”

Baseball Cards, Esports, Cannabis, and Bitcoin

Mirabile established three parameters to distinguish something as an “exotic investment.” An investor needs to be able to readily trade the asset, there needs to be a publicly available index to compare its value to similar assets, and there needs to be an instrument that allows them to purchase a share in the asset, rather than just buying the underlying object. Beanie Babies don’t make the cut, but art, baseball cards, life insurance, tax liens, e-sports teams, cannabis farms, Bitcoin, and shipping containers do.

All of them tend to trade on smaller markets, generate high returns, and importantly, their value is unrelated to the drivers of traditional stocks and bonds.

“GDP growth doesn’t really affect the price of artwork. The growth of the economy doesn’t really affect esports or vintage sneakers. These things are divorced from the normal drivers of stocks and bonds,” Mirabile said.

Although most exotic assets are only to be available to high net-worth individuals, there are exceptions. If you want to buy farmland, Mirabile notes you can buy a fractional interest in an almond farm in California, and you might own one-hundredth of the property. Not into land? You can do the same for an Andy Warhol painting as well.

“There are many credible platforms that will break up a Picasso into fractural ownerships, or that will break up a baseball card, like a 1952 Mickey Mantle that just traded at $5.2 million,” he said.

A Market for Vintage Sneakers

Neither second-hand designed wedding dresses nor American Girl dolls—both of which retain or go up in value—met his parameters, but that the vintage sneakers like Air Jordans did.

“There are actually exchanges where you can go and get a quote if you want to resell those sneakers, and there are indices that Nike and Adidas put out that track the trading of those sneakers after their retail offering. I was surprised at how big that market was, and how much infrastructure has developed around it.”

The cache attached to sneakers is fragile, of course. Mirabile noted that they’re not just items to wrap around your feet; they’re culture totems associated with an artist, which creates value. Other alternative investments may derive value from a current trend.

“Some of the downside risks are if those tastes and preferences are a fad, they collapse. There are many people today who have garages full of Cabbage Patch dolls,” he said.

Some exotic investments also bring with them ethical minefields. You could profit off mortality if you invested in life insurance contracts because your returns go up if people die sooner than expected. You could also invest in a fund that’s trying to monopolize the market on usable water in San Palo Brazil—a legal, if ethically dubious proposition.

Fortunately, there are plenty of investments that are on solid ethical ground, making them attractive to investors who see interest rates at near-zero and stocks at an all-time high, Mirabile said.

“A lot of people are interested in understanding these other investment categories because they don’t have a place to put their money,” he said.

On March 2 at noon, Mirabile will talk about Exoctic Alternative Investments as part of the Gabelli School’s Centennial Speaker Series. The event is open to the public.

“I personally think that getting involved with internships as early as possible was the largest factor that allowed me to get to my current position,” he said. “I began interning at Santander after sophomore year, and I never really stopped there once I got my foot in the door. It put me in a much better spot than other candidates once a full-time offer was available.”

As a student at Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business, Hughes majored in finance with a minor in economics. He was a member of the Student Managed Investment Fund group, about two dozen junior and senior finance majors who work together to invest $1 million of the University’s endowment. He also participated in the Fordham Finance Society, the Investment Banking Society, and played intramural sports. After interning with Santander Bank’s corporate and investment banking team the summer after his sophomore year, Hughes moved to the debt capital management team for an internship during his senior year, which led to a full-time position.

What are some of the reasons why you decided to attend Fordham
Apart from the great campus, the location of Fordham is what really drew me to the school. Being in New York City is a really great aspect of Fordham. While it offers all the positives of having [that traditional]campus [feel], it also offers all the benefits of a city school. This opens a ton of doors from a career perspective and adds a benefit to Fordham that almost no other school can offer.

What do you think you got at Fordham that you couldn’t have gotten elsewhere?
The two greatest aspects of Fordham that I’ve seen thus far are, once again, its location but also the Fordham network. Fordham gives students the opportunity to intern in New York City during the school year, which is something that very few schools are able to offer. Additionally, students can easily benefit from a Fordham network that is very willing to help out current students. For other schools, this just isn’t possible, but Fordham’s location and the school’s commitment to getting students involved with the alumni network as early as possible are two great strengths of Fordham.

Did you take any courses or have any experiences that helped put you on your current path?
Going into Fordham, I knew I was likely going to pursue a career in finance. While the coursework early on didn’t cater to my major, I found that some of the clubs I joined provided some really valuable insight into what a career in finance looked like, which I personally found more helpful than the early coursework when trying to decide what path to pursue. Clubs like the Finance Society and the Investment Banking Society were really helpful for me, especially as an undergraduate, since they offered both a view into what that career path looks like, as well as what is required to succeed.

In addition to Fordham’s clubs and coursework, getting involved with internships as early as possible was the largest factor that allowed me to get to my current position. To the extent possible, I think that is something that all students should seek out, especially in the finance area, because it is a really great way to get an advantage over students from other schools.

Who is the Fordham professor or person you admire the most, and why?
One of the most important classes I took at Fordham was my first finance class, Financial Management, with Professor [Kevin] Mirabile. Anyone who has taken [a course with]Professor Mirabile knows how knowledgeable he is, so having him for an introductory finance class was super helpful, since he was able to clearly explain the basic building blocks of finance, while also showing us what the real-world application of those lessons are. He’s also been extremely successful himself in the finance world, and has great insight on the different opportunities that are available to finance students. I took a few other classes with him, and no matter what class I took with him, I always found that he was able to clearly relate the lessons in class to what really goes on in the finance world, which made his classes much more valuable.

Can you paint us a picture of your current responsibilities? What do you hope to accomplish, personally or professionally?
I currently worked for Santander Investment Securities as an analyst for the U.S. debt capital markets team. In short, we’re responsible for bringing our clients to the capital markets to issue debt whenever there is a need or opportunity for them to do so. This includes both pitching ideas to our clients to try to identify those opportunities that match the client’s interests, as well as executing the deals when they decide to come forward with a bond offering.

In terms of what I hope to accomplish, I am still figuring much of that out, but I’ve definitely enjoyed my time at Santander with the DCM team and hope to continue working my way up there.

What are you optimistic about?
From a career perspective, two important aspects that I’ve focused on during my short time working postgrad are that my role gives me valuable work and that I have a good team around me to work with. In my current position, I’ve been lucky enough where both of those boxes are checked, and I think that’s something that all students should seek out. It’s obviously very difficult and probably unrealistic to plan out your career at a young age, but if the role offers valuable work to you and you’re surrounded by a team that provides a good work environment, then I only see reasons to be optimistic about your role, whatever field that may be in.

Anything else we should know about you, your plans, or your Fordham connection?
I’m always happy to chat with students whatever their interests may be. The Fordham network is a strong one and is a tool that can really help current Fordham students compete with students from other schools, particularly in finance.

With this in mind, a new collaboration spanning four schools across Fordham will revitalize the way real estate education is delivered at the University.

“Real estate is one of the largest industries in the city and in the country overall,” said Nestor Davidson, associate dean for academic affairs at the law school and co-director of the Fordham Urban Law Center.

“To be a successful real estate professional today, you have to be able to navigate multiple aspects—marketing, management, finance, law, policy. As a university, we’re well-suited to build that platform.”

Building that very platform is at the heart of FIRE, Davidson said. Its first objective has been to spotlight each school’s approach to substantive and pedagogical questions concerning real estate, and to examine how these approaches might formulate a holistic real estate education.

“This gets into questions of housing, of inequality, of what it means to be a city today,” Davidson said. “As the Jesuit university of New York City, Fordham has always been in the city and of the city… And, as a university, we have an obligation to engage with these questions.”

Second, FIRE has been reaching out to alumni from law, business, and the humanities who work in real estate to serve as resources and mentors for current Fordham students seeking careers in the industry.

The alumni will also benefit from the initiative, said Kevin Mirabile, DPS, clinical assistant professor of finance and business economics at the Gabelli School. Ultimately, the members of FIRE hope to establish executive education opportunities for working professionals.

These opportunities would be cross-disciplinary—much the same as the real estate industry itself.

“Once alumni graduate from their respective schools, the lines get blurred in terms of the actual work they do,” Mirabile said. “Often, a person in this field is called upon to have some legal knowledge, an understanding of urban economy, of accounting, and more.

“There’s a whole universe of people who go on to operate in a field outside of their original academic discipline or who need to manage people across disciplines. We think that’s an audience that would like to come back to Fordham for lifelong learning opportunities,” he said.

FIRE’s goals to offer continuing education and to align the University’s diverse real estate pedagogies are pertinent as the world becomes increasingly urbanized, said Rosemary Wakeman, PhD, director of the urban studies program. Real estate professionals will need to be prepared to grapple with these manifold challenges.

“It’s not just the number of people coming into cities, but what happens to the building and real estate industries under the pressures of housing demands, gentrification, commercial development,” Wakeman said.

“These are not just industry questions. These are also social and cultural questions, and they’re important ones for everyone involved… It’s an industry you have to deal with from a wide variety of lenses.” 

But Tognino Hall on April 29 was filled with students strictly in business attire. Suits, ties, and dresses. It lent additional professionalism to the proceedings, which saw awards given, investment recommendations presented, and alumni honored.

But the gravitas would come as no surprise to those who know the focused students who comprise the AI Club membership and who are completing the academic concentration developed by Kevin Mirabile, DPS.

What distinguishes the Gabelli School of Business AI students—who earn their academic stripes by completing three courses in niche areas of finance such as hedge funds, private equity, real-estate investing, and venture capital—can be summed up in one word, said the club’s incoming president (pictured above), and rising senior Jeremy Fague:

Commitment.

In just four years, that commitment has led the AI Club from being a tiny subset of the Finance Society to a 150-student-strong juggernaut that thrives on alumni support, networking, and sheer determination.

“That’s what stands out about Fordham students,” said Fague. “Commitment, drive, knowing what you want and trying to do your best to get there.”

Relatively new, alternative investments has become a Fordham University success story, in numbers and results. Both the academic concentration and the extracurricular organization focus on the practical understanding and practice of investing in areas outside of traditional assets such as bonds, stocks, and cash. Many alternatives, such as hedge funds and real estate, are complex in nature and appeal to institutions or high-worth individual investors.

The alternative investments concentration is riding the wind of change in the industry. Not too long ago, it was something of a mysterious stranger in the finance world. Hedge funds, which are often small shops with relatively few employees, have received a generous amount of negative press over the past few years despite their relative success in the market.

But alternatives have become mainstream. As the industry has grown, Mirabile said, from $6 trillion to $10 trillion in four years, the infrastructure around it has grown as well.

Driving Business Internships

“Firms are getting larger, trying to achieve scale, and they all want to have institutional-quality programs with more internally generated staff, better support, and infrastructure roles,” Mirabile, a clinical assistant professor of finance, told the audience at the AI Club’s event. “This means an opportunity for our students now and in the future.”

Choosing this academic discipline is paying off. Seven Gabelli School AI students have internships with Goldman Sachs this summer, working on everything from securities to global investment research. So far, 16 of the 19 seniors in the concentration’s résumé book either have job offers or are going to graduate school, Mirabile said.

In addition, Fordham is one of only 32 universities that have joined with the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association(CAIA) to provide more educational opportunities for students interested in alternatives. Students who obtain CAIA recognition by passing one or more of its certification exams—which are analogs of the chartered financial analyst tests for the alternatives field—will have a leg up when it comes to employment.

AI at Fordham is unique in that the student club plays a principal role in academic life.

“It was part of a desire to build a program that included a high level of student engagement and external networking,” Mirabile said of the club’s beginnings.

The club also builds a “bench” for Fordham’s AI contingent: While the three-course academic concentration is open only to juniors and seniors, the club welcomes freshmen and sophomores as well, helping them get started on their interests early.

Funding Local Charities

It has an active student-written newsletter and a charitable arm, which raised thousands of dollars for charities such as Hedge Funds Care and A Leg to Stand On.

Mirabile said private equity, venture capitalists, and hedge fund leaders are traditionally very philanthropic, so the students’ involvement in charitable ventures fits into the goals of the club as well.

“Obviously, being part of a Jesuit school, it is really important to give back and to have that sense of commitment to your community,” said Jillian Stackman, GABELLI ’15, who captained the club’s charitable efforts this year.

Behind it all is Mirabile, a former hedge fund chief operating officer and author of Hedge Fund Investing: A Practical Guide to Investor Motivation, Manager Profits and Fund Performance (Wiley 2013).

While the students have done a tremendous amount of work in growing the club, they all pay homage to Mirabile, who they say takes a personal interest in their success.

Mirabile is proud of them and of the program’s growth. The concentration had eight graduates in 2013. In 2014, 18 completed it. That jumped to 38 in 2015, and 50 students are signed up for 2016.

Mirabile’s work was recognized on May 14, when he received the Gabelli School’s Faculty Magis Award for striving for excellence.

The future appears set for the club and the concentration, but, as one would expect from its leaders, no one is resting. Fague has an ambitious agenda for the coming year. And with an enthusiastic professor, passionate students, and a growing industry, more success awaits.

— John Schoonejongen

Gabelli School of Business students will be able to further fine-tune their studies, thanks to the debut of two specializations this month.

“Alternative Investments” and “Sports Business,” which are being headed by Kevin Mirabile, lecturer in finance and business economics, and Mark Conrad, associate professor of law and ethics, respectively, will launch in time for the spring 2013 semester.

Conrad, who teaches sports law, said sports-related businesses have matured a great deal in the last 20 years, and so the need for graduates who understand the basics of business is greater than ever. This gives the program a leg up over sports management programs that are often run by liberal arts or continuing education programs, and may have only a smattering of business courses.

“We are saying you have to come in with the basics of finance, marketing, accounting, management, and communications. And then we’re adding specific courses dealing with business issues in the field of sports,” Conrad said.

Students wishing to earn the sports business specialization must complete courses in sports marketing, business of sports media, and sports law, and a capstone summary experience. That final aspect of the degree can be a presentation at a sports-related academic conference, an internship, or a sports travel experience, analyzed in a final paper. Symposiums and appearances by experts in sports business will also be a part of the program.

Conrad said that New York City is home to a plethora of sports-related businesses, from high-profile teams like the Yankees and the Knicks to all the firms that specialize in marketing, advertising, law, and finance.

“The worst thing that sports organizers find in students is they come to interviews and they simply don’t know the business. They do it because they’re fans of the team. We dissuade that,” he said.

“We say this is a business. If you’re a Yankees fan but you get a job with the Red Sox, you take the job with the Red Sox.”

Likewise, alternative investments are of interest to business students in New York City. Mirabile, who teaches a class on hedge funds, said that the New York metropolitan area has the largest concentration of alternative asset managers in the world.

The field has been growing, too. In the last 20 years, more money has been allocated to hedge funds, private equity, and other investment vehicles that are not publicly listed on exchanges. Endowments and high-net-worth individuals in particular have been drawn to them.

And unlike in the past, the boutique firms that specialize in them are now giving undergraduates a look. Specialized courses like those in private equity and commodities, which will be rolled out as electives next fall, are rare at the undergraduate level, which Mirabile said makes the program unique.

“With the pressure in the markets for managing expenses and performance, a lot of private equity firms and hedge funds are looking for undergraduate students. In the past, they had no chance of getting jobs in these firms; they only looked at graduate students or people with five years’ experience,” he said.

The specialization will feature coursework that covers private equity, hard assets, venture capital, commodities, real estate investment management, and hedge fund investing.

Students wishing to earn the specialization will be required to likewise complete three courses covering hedge funds, venture capital, or real estate. A capstone course and project will cover advanced aspects of alternative investment strategies.

It too will be supported by a student organization called the Alternative Investments Club.
Mirabile said the club’s role is to invite speakers to the campus and sponsor skill set training, including Excel training and Bloomberg University training. There is additional training in soft skills like interviewing and resume development specialized for these managers.

It’s a certain alternative to “going to JP Morgan, where you might meet the owner of the firm or be asked to wait six hours because it’s a busy day in the markets,” he said.