Visiting the New York Stock Exchange, researching market trends, meeting with investors — this isn’t just the agenda of a post-grad working on Wall Street; because of what the MMC-Northeastern Finance Society has in store, this can soon describe a day in the life for any MMC student or New York City Scholar.
New York City Scholars are making the most of their time in the financial capital of the world and creating opportunities for future students to do so. The new MMC-Northeastern Finance Society unites students from MMC and Northeastern to grow their professional networks and learn from hands-on financial experience.
MNFS goes beyond the slide shows and stock-market simulators of a typical finance club, instead taking meetings to professional development conferences and conversations with industry leaders. Its focus is broad, encompassing various areas of high finance from investment banking to private equity to venture capital, and its goal is clear: prepare students for the professional world.
Though not yet a Registered Student Organization, the leaders have completed the registration process and expect to gain official status in the coming weeks. Once approved, they will hold biweekly meetings.
Northeastern NYC Scholars Ribal Tabet, Lucas Santos, Yousef Al-Saleh and Mahmoud El Banna started the finance society to bring career preparation opportunities typically offered to clubs on the NU Boston campus to the NYC Scholars and MMC communities.
“We wanted to create a club, not so much to teach students about finance, but rather to prepare them and equip them for potential internships,” the club’s President Ribal Tabet said.
Vice President Lucas Santos added that members will be learning “mostly soft skills such as how to interact with people in a professional-like space, and also just learning from professionals that have been in the field for a very long time.”
The club’s leaders already have plans to connect members with professionals.
“What we’re mainly concerned with is allowing students to go to networking events,” Tabet said.
The club can access networking events, including exclusive conferences and events on Wall Street, thanks to its advising professor Martin Farrell. Professor Farrell, who teaches accounting, is a Wall Street veteran who has worked for the accounting firm KPMG and for the Certified Board of Public Accountants.
“He’ll be able to actually bring us into trading floors and investment banks on Wall Street,” Tabet said.
The founders themselves also bring illustrious connections to the table. Tabet runs a crypto fund, and through it has connected with potential guest speakers.
Santos also has valuable connections from his internships in finance, including the anticipated opener to the guest speaker series, Jose Securato. Securato is a mergers and acquisitions specialist who has worked on Wall Street, now running the Brazilian firm Saint Paul Advisors & Saint Paul Capital Partners and the podcast “Diário de um Banker.”
The guest speaker series will help build students’ professional networks. As Tabet said, “Guest speakers who have invested interest in our club will definitely help facilitate some introductions on Wall Street.”
So far, Director of Marketing Alex Young has promoted MNFS through social media, planning to continue marketing on Instagram with future plans to incorporate digital and print flyers once the club starts meeting. He said “we have a few online communities where people are gathering in terms of the people who are interested in registering as soon as the club is open,” and these groups are using Instagram, Snapchat and Microsoft Teams.
The club has attracted interest from Northeastern NYC Scholars, but with its founding members transitioning to Boston next year, it will need to generate a strong base of MMC students to bring it through the merger.
“We’re hoping to onboard more Marymount members,” Young said. “There’s a good possibility that what we do is with many of our Marymount members, we kind of transition a lot of the leadership in person to them.”
The executive board maintains a positive outlook on the club’s future. Tabet predicts representatives from the MMC community will take on leadership roles and he intends to reach out to incoming NYC Scholars over the summer to spark interest for next year.
The club presents opportunities not only for students passionate about finance, but also for those outside the field who want to expand their networks and skillsets and explore new industries. While finance and business majors make up the majority of prospective members, those in other programs may be attracted to the opportunity for exploration and cross-disciplinary skill-building. The founders stress that the club welcomes all levels of knowledge and experience.
Santos emphasized the club’s interdisciplinary value. “There’s a lot of value to people who have worked in high finance, because they don’t only just interact with people in the world of finance most of the time…You can go in there not wanting to do finance, and you can learn a ton about the agriculture industry for example.”
Whether a member pursues finance or not, MNFS wants to help its attendees build connections that can sprout internships, co-ops, and eventual jobs.
“In terms of securing strong connections, I feel like we’re hands-down the best opportunity you’ll find,” Young said.
The club is ultimately meant for anyone, Northeastern or MMC, business/finance student or not, who wants to advance their career, explore various industries and experience hands-on interactive learning.
“For students that are on the fence about going into a career in finance, I think joining our club is really valuable,” Tabet said, “We’re looking for students that are here to learn and to explore because that’s what college is about.”
The MMC-Northeastern Finance Society wants this new combined community to take advantage of all that New York City has to offer for young professionals. As the MMC and Northeastern communities continue to become one, MNFS unites students from both for a common goal of career development.
For more updates on the MMC-Northeastern Finance Society, follow their Instagram, @mnfinancesociety.
