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February 2023

Giving Day 2023

Giving Day 2023 is Feb. 15-16 –  a week away! Here’s how you can help the Finance Department.

  • Make a gift on Giving Day. Help Finance, SEED, and BASIS earn top 10 spots on the Pamplin Leaderboard this year and beat 100 donors from 2022 to win a share of challenge funds. Every donor and donation counts for as little as $5. Give to:

Thank you in advance for your generosity!

Finance alumni in the news

  • Finance alumna Feride Daku was recently named the first director of finance and administration at the Virginia Tech Innovation campus. Feride was previously the associate vice provost for business administration and has been part of Virginia Tech for over 25 years.
  • Finance Advisory Board member and Virginia Tech alum Brian Sullivan will anchor CNBC’s new show Last Call.
  • Finance graduate and decorated former Virginia Tech defensive lineman Corey Moore has been selected for entrance into the College Football Hall of Fame. Corey is currently the Assistant Dean for Academic Advising and Student Success at the University of Kentucky College of Nursing.
  • Finance alumna Alia Wagenhoffer was recently featured in a Great Aspirations podcast speaking about her career shift from financial advising to fintech.

Student and program news and notes

  • Finance major David Berry was recently featured in Virginia Tech Pamplin Career Services Student Spotlight.
  • The CFP Program would like to thank Partners in Financial Planning in Salem, Virginia for sponsoring the purchase of new "swag" for students in the program. After interacting with students in the program last November at the Schwab IMPACT Conference, Stephen Bain, a graduate of the CFP program, committed to providing financial support to update the attire our students wear to conferences. We appreciate their support, along with the support received from our many generous benefactors.

Real-World Finance Richmond/Pamplin Finance Externship Experience

Professor Brian Hart and a group of 14 students spent part of the winter break visiting Richmond-area industry leaders as part of a unique and engaging hands-on learning experience. The objective of the Real-World Finance Richmond/Pamplin Finance Externship Experience is to provide students with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to correlate their Finance coursework with real-world applications at top organizations, including Atlantic Union Bank, Davenport & Company, Wells Fargo, EY, and the Federal Reserve of Richmond while interacting with Virginia Tech Finance alumni.

In the above photo, students participating in the Real-World Finance Richmond externship are pictured visiting Atlantic Union Bank headquarters.

Above, Kevin Bennett (’07) and Brian Ward (’10) from Davenport & Co., address students participating in the Real-World Finance Richmond externship.

Dr. George Morgan to retire Sept. 1

Dr. George Morgan, Truist Professor of Finance, announced that he will retire from the university effective Sept. 1, after a 39-year career in the department. George started here after being on the faculty at UT-Austin and working as a banking regulator. During his time, he has served in many important roles - Ph. D. Program Director, Interim Department Head, Director of the Center for Wireless Telecommunications (an interdisciplinary research center with engineering), Chair of the Department’s P&T committee, plus numerous other department and college committees.

Nineteen years ago, in 2004, George began working on a new program, BASIS, which was to quickly become the largest undergraduate-run fixed income money management “business” in the country. BASIS alumni have had extraordinarily strong placements. Today and in the future, we doubt that anyone will discuss BASIS without acknowledging the vision and hard work put in by George. More recently, what is now called CREDIT was proposed by George and was approved by the Virginia Tech Foundation in May 2019. The department wishes to thank George for changing the lives of numerous students, changing the trajectory of experiential learning; and for his unqualified dedication to the university, department, and his students.

Will Coleman to lead BASIS

Will Coleman, assistant professor of practice, will become BASIS’s new advisor effective July 1, succeeding George Morgan. Will is a graduate of Virginia Tech with a double major in ISE and Finance, and was also a co-CEO of BASIS as a student. Prior to joining Virginia Tech three years ago, Will worked at Goldman Sachs in New York and a private equity firm in Chicago.

Pamplin events, alumni speakers, and corporate presentations

The department hosts numerous events and presentations every semester. A list of recent alumni speakers and corporate presentations can be found below. 

  • Wiss & Co.
  • Joss Brown
  • Hopewood Financial
  • The Kelly Group
  • Olio Financial Planning
  • PWC
  • Fifth Third Bank information session
  • BDO information session
  • Numerous information sessions and webinars

Engagement opportunities

  • The Finance Careers speaker series is seeking alumni (see the above item) interested in speaking to finance students this semester about their jobs, companies, and/or careers, as well as providing any advice they would like to give to the students. The talks generally last 30-45 minutes (plus time for Q&A), are usually held in the afternoons or evenings (depending on the speaker’s availability), and can be done in-person or via Zoom. If you are interested in speaking this semester, please contact Mike Kender at mkender@vt.edu.
  • The Finance Advisory Board welcomes nominations of involved alumni to serve on the board. If you are interested or would like to recommend a candidate, please contact Dr. Vijay Singal, Department Head of Finance, at vs@vt.edu.
  • The Fall 2023 meeting of the Finance Advisory Board will be on Sept. 29 in Blacksburg. This will be followed by a tailgate on Sept. 30 along with the Virginia Tech-Pitt game.  All are invited to attend the tailgate. 

Open positions

We are hiring full-time and part-time faculty to teach many finance courses. If you or someone you know is interested, please contact Vijay Singal at vs@vt.edu with a résumé or CV. For more details, visit  jobs.vt.edu and search for finance.

Feedback and news ideas

Please provide your feedback on this newsletter to vs@vt.edu. We would like to include items of interest to you, as well as recognitions and achievements of Finance Hokies, in future newsletters. 

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