Finance Students Attend 2013 Charles Schwab IMPACT Conference
The University of Akron College of Business Administration (CBA) finance students Danielle Molyet, Zachary Savage, Leandra Schindler, and Sally Schmitt, attended the 2013 Charles Schwab IMPACT Conference held Nov. 10 -13, 2013, to learn more about investment advising. With the generous assistance of CBA alumnus James McCool, Executive Vice President of Charles Schwab, the students and faculty advisor, Susan Gradisher, JD, Assistant Professor of Business Law, travelled to Washington, DC, to meet those in the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) community, other students and faculty from around the country, and network with exhibitors.
Suzanne Gradisher, JD, IMPACT Conference faculty advisor
IMPACT is an invitation-only conference for registered investment advisors that includes influential presenters, exhibitors, and subject-matter experts. Attendees learn about key industry issues and investment advising best practices. 2013 keynote speakers included Olympia Snowe, former Republican senator from Maine and author Michael Lewis. Snowe is nationally recognized as a political moderate who spent her career building bipartisan consensus on far-ranging issues, from campaign finance reform and fiscal responsibility to health care, education, and national security. Michael Lewis, a non-fiction author and financial journalist, has had nine of his 14 books make The New York Times best-sellers list. In addition to the speakers and educational sessions, the students networked with others from such schools as Texas Tech, Virginia Tech and William Patterson, and well as with the professionals in attendance. The students also toured Washington DC on Segways. The final event was a closing party held at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The special guest that night was Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger, III, the now-retired airline captain who became famous when he successfully landed a disabled U.S. Airways plane on the Hudson River in January 2009.