At Columbia Business School, Up Close & Personal Means C-Suite Access

Columbia Business School - Ethan Baron photo

Columbia Business School – Ethan Baron photo

Last spring’s financial services seminar focused on disruption and change in the industry. “We looked at everything from payments to research to capital markets. We looked at the breadth of the industry and then we tried to hone in on where we saw opportunity and change in that industry,” Azim says. Students spent several days going to offices of major global corporations, and learned first-hand, says Columbia MBA candidate Matt Austin, how millennial culture is disrupting the financial services industry, and how the sector is responding. The students visited financial services firms including Morgan Stanley, UBS, and The Carlyle Group. A former head of CitiMortgage came in and talked about the financial crisis. Former U.S. treasury secretary Robert Rubin met the students for a breakfast Q&A. A venture capitalist asked the class members how many used banks to send wire transfers, and few raised their hands, but when he asked how many people used payment app Venmo, “practically everyone raised their hand,” Austin, 31, says. “Transactions in the regular banking environment are changing daily.”

“Learning about the theory and going into the field, for me it was just a great way to absorb and digest material,” says Austin, a CPA and former senior associate and manager in KPMG’s audit practice. “My knowledge just expanded exponentially. I had a pretty good grasp of the sector, but my mind was blown – it was just that great of a course so far as improving my skill set.”

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