From Tracking Box Scores to
Tracking Mutual Funds

Chris Carter, MBA 2009

Career Specialization: Applied Security Analysis
Internship: Victory Capital Management, New York, N.Y.

Chris Carter’s interest in finance started with an interest in baseball players. In grade school, he tracked baseball box scores, but his interest in analyzing data soon morphed into mutual funds. In the eighth grade, he took his earnings from working as a caddy and running a lawn-mowing service, and invested in a local mutual fund company. By 16, he was watching CNBC on a daily basis and reading the Wall Street Journal and Investor’s Business Daily. Sure that investing was something he would be doing for the rest of his life, he earned a degree in finance from Santa Clara University. He worked in sales while pursuing his CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) designation. As a second-year student in the applied security analysis program of the Wisconsin MBA, Carter joins teams of students who manage a $43 million portfolio. Clearly, he’s come a long way from his days of tracking base hits and sacrifice flies.

“Wisconsin has the most practical, focused curriculum for what I want to do. In the first semester, we learn how to write research reports and we get feedback from a local hedge fund manager. Those reports become key as we interviewed for internships. Being able to pitch a stock is one thing, but having employers see a polished report that shows your work and looks like what those companies already produce internally—this really makes us at Wisconsin stand apart.

“I think Wisconsin students have a clearer vision than the average MBA student of what they want to do when they graduate. The great thing about the Wisconsin MBA is that from the beginning you meet students who have pre-identified themselves as sharing your focus on a particular specialization—so you immediately have colleagues in your area of interest.

“The curriculum here is amazing. I really enjoy the classroom dialogue and hearing from the perspectives of students from different industries and different careers. The case studies stimulate the variety of viewpoints.

“I am confident that the program is going to give me the opportunity to do investment management, and that has always been my dream.”