One of the newest academic clubs at IE University is the IE Investment Club (IEIC). The founders’ motivation to create the club was based on the realization that IE didn’t have a solid investment club foundation, and the fact that they consider investment a big part of everyone’s lives. They wanted to share their knowledge of investment and create a wider community surrounding the topic.
The founders are second-year students from the Segovia campus Carlo Masera, Kristofer Roos, and Santiago Quintana. They have been investing since they were young teenagers. Carlo is the President of the IE Investment Club. Last summer, he took a course on equity and venture capital financing at Bocconi University in Milan, which stimulated his interest in the topic even more. His main focus is portfolio diversification. Kristofer is the Chief Executive Officer. He started investing five years ago and his main interest is managing portfolios. He wishes to establish and grow a club that’s not only for people who are already interested, but also for the rest. They want to emphasize that joining this growing club does not require previous experience at all. Santiago Quintana is the Chairman, who has been investing since he was 14 years old. His overall goal is to become a good financial lawyer, having been interested in investment for such a long time. The reason why Santiago wanted to create the Investment Club was the need to teach the IE Community about it.
The Stork had the pleasure of talking to Yasmin Akharakova, a member of the Executive Board of the club, who entered the board without having any knowledge on the subject of investment. She was interested in it despite her lack of knowledge, and she told her friend: “I know nothing about investment! How could I apply to the board?” Her friend told her that she could take care of the matters related to social media and other topics. But this doesn’t mean that she won’t be initiated in the main subject matter here. Like all the other members of the club, Yasmin will begin her learning process in the first meeting sessions of the club, which will be based on teaching the basics of investment. Due to the fact that the course is progressive, it would be better if people didn’t join the Investment Club in the middle of the year, since it would mean that they would miss the introductory sessions.
As it was explained in the IE Club Fair on the 3rd of October, the club will start with weekly meetings with the founders, in which they’ll teach about the very basics of investment. They’ll have an introduction to stocks and, over time, the delivered topics will become increasingly harder and involve different subjects within the world of investment. They’ll have varied club events and activities. As we can see, the club isn’t limited to experienced people. The members will all go through a preparatory phase. This is what the members of the Executive Board think will differentiate them from other IE clubs: inclusivity. Every single person can join and they aren’t very selective, it doesn’t matter how much you know or don’t know about investment. They will try their best to form a big community but also an inclusive one. At this moment, you can get the membership by joining Campus Groups, and you can get newsletters and be able to join the events.
As a result of all the members of the Executive Board being established in Segovia this year, the club is based there. However, as the founders and other members of the Team are moving to the Madrid Campus in September 2021, the club will be based there in the next year. During the current 2020/2021 academic year, both students of the Madrid and the Segovia campuses can apply for membership.
The team members also want to emphasize the idea that you don’t have to have the intention of getting jobs in the investment field in order to join the club. Although most of them intend to work in the financial field, one of the founders, Santiago, wishes to become a financial lawyer. Yasmin’s idea is testing waters that are going to reflect in her future. For her, it’s an experience to add knowledge about a different area to her life.
Laurin Kopp, one of the members of the Executive Board, said he liked investment because you make calculative moves in it, there’s logical and rational thinking behind it but there’s also the thrill of not knowing if everything you do will be correct. Laurin stated that it’s exciting and unexpected, but it also takes a lot of understanding to get into it. That’s why the preparatory weekly sessions will be extremely useful.
Although no experience in investment is needed to join the club, the team thinks that the will to work together is essential.
“You may be the smartest person in the room, but if you are not willing to work in a group, it’s complicated. We are looking for people with motivation to learn education to finance and creative thinking.” -Yasmin, member of the Executive Board
The Investment Club wishes that in the short-term, IE will aid with the promotion of the club and its events. Moreover, they have seen that some top universities in the U.S., like UPenn, the University of Chicago, and UCLA, have received donations from some parents and Alumni. They used the money received from the parents’ donations and created investment funds, which continue to exist. The IE Investment Club looks forward to the aforementioned events, and they wish that IE will be willing to follow the steps of these universities in the near future.
Join the Investment Club!
