A New Perspective on Finance Careers

I’d like to thank Rockefeller Mini Grants for providing me with the opportunity to attend the 2017 Venture Capital and Private Equity Conference at Harvard Business School. It was an amazing experience and I am so grateful to have had the privilege of attending this event.

The Venture Capital and Private Equity Conference at Harvard Business School is an annual conference that brings together students, professors, and venture capital/private equity professionals from around the world. The conference features four keynote speakers, each bringing a unique perspective on the venture capital and private equity industry. In addition, the conference features various panel discussions covering topics such as growth equity, cross-border investing, and healthcare investing.

The keynote speakers were incredible. I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to listen to Seth Klarman (CEO and President of The Baupost Group) speak on the current state of the U.S. financial market. It was very interesting to hear Sandra Horbach’s (Managing Director and Co-Head of U.S. Buyout at The Carlyle Group) thoughts on private equity. Furthermore, I greatly appreciated the opportunity to network with professionals working in venture capital and private equity – I even met a Dartmouth alum working in private equity!

The conference was enriching and insightful, and I am looking forward to sharing the lessons learned from this experience with my fellow students. Thank you Rockefeller Mini Grants for making this experience possible! 

After attending the 2017 Venture Capital and Private Equity Conference at Harvard Business School, I organized a dinner discussion with Dartmouth Finance Society members to discuss careers in private equity. I shared the lessons learned from the conference with my fellow classmates. We talked about the current state of the private equity industry, how a career in private equity is different from other finance professions, and how to enter a career in private equity.

- Submitted by Jonathan Lu '19, Rockefeller Mini-Grant Recipient 

The Rockefeller Center's Mini-Grants program funds registration fees for students attending conferences, as well as the costs of bringing guest speakers to Dartmouth. The views and opinions expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the Rockefeller Center or constitute an endorsement by the Center.