Finance


A Winning Team

From left: Roma Romaniv, Joaquin Sanchez and Stephen Mwangi, the team of undergraduate finance students who took place in the Cornell Stock Pitch Challenge. (UConn School of Business)
From left: Roma Romaniv, Joaquin Sanchez and Stephen Mwangi—the team of undergraduate finance students who took place in the Cornell Stock Pitch Challenge—pictured at a Popeyes Restaurant. (UConn School of Business)

UConn Finance Students Victorious at Highly Competitive Cornell Stock Pitch Contest

A team of UConn undergraduate finance students took third place in the highly prestigious Cornell Stock Pitch Challenge in Boston, going toe-to-toe with teams from Harvard, Columbia, Duke, Notre Dame and Amherst.

“We are very proud of our students’ success in the face of extremely tough competition,” said finance professor and department head Chinmoy Ghosh. “Their success confirms what we already know, that our students are able to compete and win against anyone.” Continue Reading


Princeton Review Ranks UConn School of Business Among the Best in the Nation

The UConn School of Business is among the top business schools in the country at which to earn an MBA, according to The Princeton Review’s 2017 edition ofThe Best 294 Business Schools.” “We recommend UConn as one of the best to earn an MBA,” said Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s senior VP-Publisher. “We chose the 294 schools in this book based on our high regard for their academics and our assessment of institutional data we collect from the schools. We also solicited and greatly respect the opinions of 25,000 students attending these schools who reported on their experiences.”

The publication identified UConn as a great place to develop real-world credentials, noted its high regard in the areas of finance and risk analytics, and praised its smaller class sizes, which make it easy to build relationships with both professors and classmates.

“I have had interviews with Covidien, Pitney Bowes, General Electric and Travelers Insurance, and I know UConn has a strong presence when I see that I am competing in the second round interviews with students from Yale and Cornell,” one UConn MBA student wrote in a review.


Opening Ph.D. Student Speaker Series

School of Business finance doctoral students with Professor Lewellen.

This Fall, I had the pleasure of coordinating the Finance Ph.D. Student Speaker Series. The purpose of the Speaker Series is to enhance the research culture of the School of Business by attracting speakers whose research is particularly relevant to doctoral students. Each year doctoral students of the five academic departments make the decision of whom to invite, decide the professor’s agenda, and otherwise facilitate and coordinate the professor’s visit. Continue Reading


A Little White Lie – or Worse?

Lying?

UConn Researcher Discovers that Retail Execs Downplay, Mislead Outlook in Reports to Stockholders

Many CEOs from major U.S. retailers tend to soften, possibly even distort, their company’s financial standings and offer stakeholders pessimistic predictions about the future, even when their companies are thriving.Continue Reading


What’s Normal?

U.S. Economic Expert Shares Vast Knowledge With Our Graduate Students

Economist Cletus C. Coughlin, senior vice president and policy adviser to the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, was a guest lecturer in the School of Business’ graduate program on Sept. 27.

Coughlin presented his knowledge on “The U.S. Economy: What’s Normal?” in Professor Jeffrey Cohen’s “FNCE 5533 – Real Estate Capital Markets” class at the Graduate Business Learning Center in Hartford.

Cletus Coughlin, senior vice president and policy adviser to the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)
Cletus Coughlin, senior vice president and policy adviser to the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)

In his 30 years at the Federal Reserve, Coughlin’s responsibilities have focused on advising senior officials on monetary policy, as well as on academic research on the topics of international trade, urban, regional, and real estate economics. He has been with the Federal Reserve since 1987.

Coughlin and Cohen have been collaborating on research for the past 15 years, having published on a wide range of topics, including property taxation, airport infrastructure issues, housing price impacts of airport noise, and the boom and bust of U.S. housing prices.

Most recently, they co-authored an article with a third researcher on foreclosures, which was published in September 2016 in the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review. Read their article here.


‘You are an Entrepreneur!’

Kathryn Friedrich, Head of Global Monetization, YouTube (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)
Kathryn Friedrich, Head of Global Monetization, YouTube (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

UConn’s New Xcite Conference Draws 200+ Women; Strives to Increase Connecticut’s Women Business Leaders

It was a simple assignment that YouTube executive Kathryn Friedrich gave to the audience of 200 business women: take a minute and think of an entrepreneur.

“If you’re not thinking of yourself, think again, because you are an entrepreneur,” she said. “Entrepreneurship is a mindset. You don’t have to start your own company to be an entrepreneur. You can start working on it right away!” Continue Reading


Swimming with Sharks

New Crowdfunding Rules Let Small Investors Join a Riskier League

New rules from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which took effect May 16, 2016, open many doors for “ordinary people” to invest in start-ups and other small businesses.

The issuers of the securities that they invest in will not need to affirm the investors’ financial sophistication nor provide them with audited financial statements. The underlying law was signed four years ago, but it has taken a while for the SEC to write the rules, all 685 pages of them. Continue Reading


Welcome New Faculty

Fourteen new faculty members join the UConn School of Business for the Fall 2016 semester. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)
New faculty members pose for a photograph during orientation. Fourteen new faculty members join the UConn School of Business for the Fall 2016 semester.  (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

School of Business Adds 14 Professors to Ranks

An OPIM professor with a near-perfect student rating, an expert in entrepreneurship and startups, an MSA graduate who wants to help lead the program she loves, and a management professor who specializes in international business growth are among 14 new faculty members joining the School of Business for the Fall 2016 semester.

Our new faculty include: Continue Reading


UConn Called Key to Stamford’s Business Future

News times – The University of Connecticut maintains its headquarters upstate, but its brand is quickly growing in the state’s southwestern corner.
The launch last week of a Stamford conference for businesswomen shows that university officials are intent on expanding UConn’s presence in the city through more programming and closer ties with the local business community.


A Fast Track to Economic Growth?

Jeffrey Cohen, who specializes in real estate and finance, has received a $194,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation to start investigating economic changes along the CTfastrak bus route. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)
Jeffrey Cohen, who specializes in real estate and finance, has received a $194,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation to start investigating economic changes along the CTfastrak bus route. (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

Real Estate Professor Jeffrey Cohen Eager to Study Impact of New Transit System on Central Connecticut

Will the state’s new bus rapid-transit system – CTfastrak – which has already carried 4 million riders since its inaugural trip in March 2015, also spur growth in housing, restaurants, and other businesses along its route in central Connecticut?  Continue Reading