March 2010

**Tonight’s meeting began with a look at the current condition of our stock portfolio.

*China Educational Alliance (a recent addition to our portfolio) has thus far suffered a hefty drop of $300..that being said, analysts have faith that this stock will soon rise again, and continue in an upward trend.

*With the soon-to-be-released iPad, Apple shares have been on the rise.

*Mercadolibre (another recent buy) has also been performing quite well, and with its recent expansion into Portugal, we expect to see a continuous upward trend.

–Thoughts on stocks to sell? EROC? Nokia? Let’s hear your feedback on which stocks you think should stay and which ones should go!

**Lingyi gave an AWESOME presentation in which she pitched a stock soon to be listed on NYSE: KKR group, Kohlberg Kravis Robert & Co. KKR is a NYC-based private equity firm that invests primarily in leverage buyouts (i.e. using debt to acquire companies; high risk type of investment) and growth capital (i.e. helping mature companies grow; low risk type of investment). KKR completed 2 of the largest buyouts to date. KKR has invested in more than 160 companies. As of March 12, KKR has been filing for NYSE, planning to raise $7.5 billion, with the sale of 2.2 billion shares. It’s divisions include Asset Management and KKR Financial. In 2009, KKR’s pro forma net income was $1,953.9 billion. Lingyi believes that KKR will be a strong stock, noting that “as we are coming out of the recession, there will be a number of investment opportunites for private equity firms to take advantage of and profit from.” Great Job!!

**This past weekend, Swarthmore College held the LAX Entrepreneurship Conference. Meldon  attended this day long event, and brought back some very valuable insight to share with our group. She gathered that right now, there are an increading number of different opportunities for entrepreneurs, and particularly within the chemicals industry. Mel noted that her favorite event that day was the highly interactive and engaging twitter conference, where she met with Swarthmore alum and co-founder of Twitter, and was even able to ‘tweet’ her thoughts in real-time throughout the presentation. One particularly important peice of advice that Mel took with her: “D0 your research (and do so extensively!). Meldon will be posting commentary and more insight gathered from the conference in her blog at “Startphilly.com” — a fantastic resource for local entrepreneurs!  Be sure to check out the site, and please make sure to comment on Mel’s stuff! It’s great and quite insightful!!

**With fewer club donations than expected this year, OIG still had $2,000 left to donate… so, tonight, the members of OIG brainstormed a number of charities that would like to donate to, and then voted on 4 charities, each of which we will be donating $500 to.

And, the winning charities are….

*7 Sisters of China!! *Haiti/Disaster Relief!! *Chile Relief!! *Doctors without Borders!!

Thanks to all those who came out tonight! It was a productive and insightful meeting! Stay tuned for next week, as we have John Griffin (CFO of Bryn Mawr College!!) coming to talk to OIG about Bryn Mawr’s endowment! It’s quite an interesting talk, so be sure to invite friends, bring popcorn, sit back, and enjoy

See you next week!

This past Friday, March 26th, marked OIG’s Spring 2010 Semester Field Trip! OIG members had a wonderfully busy and informative day of visiting with several Bryn Mawr alumnae, who currently work at some of Philadelphia’s most prominent companies. It was quite inspiring to hear these women offer their perspectives on “Life-post-BMC”, as well as discuss the invaluable experience they had while at Bryn Mawr, and how their college experience truly paved their path to success.

We began our day at Accenture, where several recent graduates of Bryn Mawr presented the business strategies and structural breakdown of one of the largest consulting firms in the world. We later ventured to Sunoco, where we met with a Bryn Mawr alum (along with 2 of her colleagues) who discussed with us the business principles of a Fortune 500 company; in addition to providing us with some very valuable insight, stemming from a long line of success and accomplishments throughout her post-college career. Our final trip was a visit to the Wharton School of Business, at the University of Pennsylvania, where we met with the director of admissions, as well as 3 current MBA students (one of whom was a Mawrtyr!!). The women shared with us their experiences, as well as their reasons for choosing Wharton over other business schools, and provided us with some helpful advice in regards to applying to, and attending, business school.

It was quite an eventful and exciting day for OIG! Thank you to all those who came; please feel free to comment your thoughts and opinions on the trip. Feedback is always greatly appreciated! 

Looking forward to seeing you all at our next meeting!!

Tonight was Elections night!

It was certainly an emotional night for us all. Each candidate and OIG member who ran for a board position was certainly more than qualified to be apart of the OIG board; it seems almost unfair to elect just one person per position, seeing as each candidate was more than capable of doing an Incredible job! It was truly a wonderful sight to see the dedication, drive, intelligence, and passion that resonated in each of the OIG members. To all those who ran tonight, you should each be very proud of yourselves, for all of you have impacted OIG in more ways than you can imagine. Your presence and role in OIG is invaluable, and although a position title could not be awarded to every member tonight, the fact that each member’s voice is just as important and renders equal impact as any counter member (with or without board title) is undeniable. Thank you again to all those who ran, and thank you to each member of OIG for making our club the amazing and incredible club that it is. Now get excited for OIG  2010-2011!!!! It’s going to be an AMAZINGGG YEAR!!!

And, of course, a big CONGRATS to the members of the 2010-2011 BOARD OF OIG! CONGRATULATIONS LADIES!!! WOOT!

PRESIDENT: SASHA BEREZNAK, ’11

PORTFOLIO MANAGER: YUFAN WANG, ’11

SECRETARY: LILLY AMIRHEKMAT, ’11

TREASURER: RUILIN XU, ’11

PUBLICITY CHAIR: SOPHIA ABBOUD, ’12

..it’s going to be a great year ladies!

In addition, some equally exciting news to get pumped for….

THIS FRIDAY (MARCH 26TH) IS OIG’S SPRING SEMESTER FIELD TRIP!!!! YAYYYY!!   We will be exploring the (financial) heart of Philly….can’t wait!

It’s that time of year… election season. With the end of the semester in sight and the weather finally tolerable, it is time to start the process of passing the torch. Elections will be held on March 22nd during our normal meeting. Below is a description of each position. Candidates may run for multiple positions and will address why they are running and what qualifications they have for all of the positions they are running for in one speech. We’d like to keep speeches to around 2 minutes per person so that we have ample time to hear from everyone, discuss and vote.

President:
The president is responsible for overseeing all club activities and liaising between the college, the executive board, and the general meetings. The president coordinates all special events (trips, lectures, workshops, panels) and works closely with the other board members to support them in their roles and ensure that things are getting done.

Portfolio Manager:
The portfolio manager is responsible for executing trades, overseeing all portfolio activity, and advising the club on possible stock suggestions. She must follow the market and keep members up to date on major market and portfolio movement in whatever way she sees fit (newsletter, verbal, blog posts, a combination, etc.). The portfolio manager should be familiar with how trading works and feel comfortable researching investment opportunities. She will run several meetings throughout the semester.

Bank Treasurer:
The treasurer is responsible for all OIG non-money market cash. She must keep record of all expenses in an excel spreadsheet and work with administrator Mary Cataldi to get funds needed for club donations and for OIG itself. It is the treasurer’s job to ensure that clubs who are awarded money during club donations do receive their payments. The treasurer oversees all transaction activity.

Publicity Chair:
The publicity chair is responsible for publicizing the club and overseeing club recruitment. She will also coordinate club donations and send weekly reminder e-mails to club members and the general BMC community (through activities e-mails) to advertise for and provide information on special events and regular meetings.

Secretary:
The secretary is responsible for reserving meeting rooms (and rooms for special events). It is her job to take minutes at general and board meetings and distribute these to the appropriate groups. She is also responsible for keeping the blog up to date.

Welcome back from break! We had an excel workshop (using excel for business and finance needs) with BMC Econ Professor Stahnke. Contact Lilly or Yufan for a list of helpful excel shortcuts.

Finally it’s the spring round of OIG’s Club Gift Donation meeting! There’re countless ways we can give back to Bryn Mawr, and OIG gives back to the college in the form of club funding, supporting clubs and individuals on campus to implement their special events! OIG has become particularly popular this year, thus received a number of amazing applications!

Here’s a list of clubs or individuals who came to OIG’s meeting to present their ideas:
1.Mawrter Entertainment
2.Bi-co KSA (Korean Student Association)
3.BioVision Conference 2010
4.The Jewish Student Union
5.PEIA (Project Education in Africa)

Although each presentation was kept under 5 minutes, we were all very impressed by these innovative ideas that would help enrich our experience at Bryn Mawr. At the end of the meeting, members of OIG had a lively discussion, and voted on how much we shall allocate to each club.

Come by on March 15th as we’ll be having our General Meeting, featuring Professor Stahnke teaching us some tricks to play around in Excel!! If time permits, we’ll look into our portfolio.

This is the last meeting before spring break, YAY, let’s count down!!