Wharton MBA Defends Romney & Private Equity

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s career in private equity is not much different than legendary investor Warren Buffett, according to first-year Wharton MBA student Daniel Pang.

“What Mitt Romney and many private equity firms do … is not different from what Warren Buffett does,” Pang told The Daily Pennsylvanian. “It’s pretty much just investing in companies.”

Romney has been the subject of withering criticism over his role as head of the private equity firm Bain Capital for many years. The candidate, said Pang, “might be really wealthy, but he’s made exponentially more money for other people.”

“Sometimes, for a company to operate most efficiently … it’s not the worst thing if some people ended up losing their jobs,” said Pang, co-chair of a leverage buyout conference at Wharton. “A lot of times, that’s very beneficial for companies.”

Private equity is an increasingly popular career option for Wharton MBA students. In 2001, 2.3% of MBA students accepted full-time job offers with companies in the industries of private equity or venture capital, according to that year’s MBA Career Report. By last year, some 7.65% of the Class of 2011 landed jobs in those two fields.