Cheryl Alden

I am pursuing an MBA in finance. I tutor economics part-time at Cuyahoga Community College. After graduation, I want to work in investments. I will take the level 1 CFA exam this December. I joined the SMIF team because I'm very interested in the stock market and portfolio management and want to learn more. I hope to apply knowledge I've learned in my MBA classes to investment decisions for the SMIF. My favorite hobby is skiing. My favorite places to ski are the mountains of the western U.S. and Canada.

 

 

 

Shadie Andraos

Shadie Andraos is a senior finance student and a member of the honors program at Cleveland State University.  He is actively involved on campus, having served as the Chair of the University Judicial Board for 2 years, and currently serving as an executive office for multiple campus organizations. 

Shadie brings to the fund a range of valuable experiences.  He has recently returned from New York, where he worked at Lehman Brothers as a Summer Analyst.  There, he specialized in Fixed Income- Exotics Trading, focusing on Structured Products and Interest Rate Derivatives.   His other experiences include working at the Federal Reserve Bank, Microsoft, Forest City Enterprises, and National City Bank.  His financial aspirations include gaining experience in both investment banking and portfolio management, as well as ultimately achieving his CFA. 

As a business student, Shadie has engaged in several competitions and activities.  He is a member of the Entrepreneurship Consortium’s inaugural team representing CSU.  In a separate Entrepreneurship competition, Shadie and his teammate received 1st place and represented CSU in a regional competition.  Shadie was also the team leader for a trio of students who placed top 10 amongst US undergraduate teams in the L’Oreal E-Strat International Business Challenge. 

Shadie is a military dependant, and has lived and travelled abroad extensively.  He lived in Tokyo, Japan for 8 years, after which he moved to Guam for a year before coming to Cleveland.  In his undergraduate years, Shadie has studied abroad in both Germany and France.  When he is in Cleveland, Shadie  volunteers at local high schools.  He is a member of Junior Achievement, a non-profit organization which focuses on providing valuable business and economic education to students in all grade levels.  There, he volunteers weekly as an instructor for financial literacy courses at the high school level.  In his spare time he enjoys exercising, travelling and fine dining. 

 

Dan Jacobs

I am currently employed in the investment management division of Key Private Bank.  As a portfolio manager, I provide investment management advice, including asset allocation decisions and stock and mutual fund selection, to over 300 trust and high net worth accounts with assets under management exceeding $125 million.  My work experience includes several years as a retail broker with McDonald Financial Group and trading for the institutional trust department at National City.  I have a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hope College in Holland, Michigan.  I also hold series 7 and 66 licenses and expect to graduate from the Cleveland State MBA program in May of 2009. 

I was motivated to join the SMIF team so I can learn how to better analyze and research individual companies.  I feel a better understanding and more thorough analysis will allow for better asset allocation and investment decisions while providing greater risk management for clients.

 

Heather Nguyen

I’m a senior majoring in Finance and International Business. I’m very involved on campus as well as in the community. In 2007, I co-founded Viking Expedition, a program under the Department of Student Life’s Center for Leadership and Service that organizes service learning trips throughout the country for CSU students. I’m part of Cleveland 20/30 Young Professionals and currently working on a new program to teach high school students about financial literacy.

On the professional aspect, I have interned at Tremco Corporate Finance Department, doing research on potential oversea M&A targets and the Entrepreneur EDGE, consulting Northeast Ohio Sourcing Office on their new business concept. Other consulting projects I have done include: expanding Cleveland Motion Control’s product line in Europe and ASMAR Shipbuilding (Chile) oversea expansion.

My interest is in emerging markets, especially Vietnam and China. I have done general research on the real estate market in Vietnam and will be doing my honor thesis on the same topic with Dr. James R. Webb. Political economics is another field that I’m interested in.

Aside from researching and civic engagement, I enjoy fencing for CSU Varsity team and learning new languages. I’m fluent in Vietnamese and currently working on Mandarin and German.

 

Charan Singh

I am a Lead Application Developer working with Progressive Corporation in Information Technology department. Prior to my current job, I worked with Citibank and Verizon Long distance. I have more then 13 years of experience in Project Management, Object Oriented analysis, design, development and implementation of software applications in Microsoft Technologies. I earned Bachelors of Engineering (Mechanical) degree from Indian Institute of Technology and a Diploma in Business Process Re-Engineering from JMA Japan. I enjoy reading technical books, watching movies and working in groups.

I got motivation to join SMIF team as I am looking for career change in finance and investments. I am interested to improve skills in Stock Selection and Portfolio management by group discussion and guidance from finance faculty. I have almost 4 years of experience in investments. I use Fidelity Active Trader Pro and Investors Business Daily to analyze stocks.

 

 

JK Smith

JK Smith is a native of Cleveland, Ohio and is currently an MBA student who will graduate in Spring 2009.  Upon learning about the opportunity to participate in the Student Managed Investment Fund, JK delayed graduation to be a part of this unique program.  His ability to contribute to the class stems from his academic background in Economics and his previous work in the financial services industry with Merrill Lynch. JK has also worked in corporate sales focusing on fortune 1000 companies in the telecom industry and currently is a business development manager for a local advertising company.

JK is still deciding what path to pursue after completion of his MBA, but plans on incorporating the SMIF experience into his career.  His immediate goals for the course are to take full advantage of the contributions of professors, classmates, and the local financial community, while ensuring the future success of the program.  The scheduled participation from members of the local financial community creates a fantastic opportunity for the SMIF class to create a strong foundation for the fund, and subsequent classes. 

JK graduated from Kent State University with honors receiving his degree in Economics.  He has studied abroad in The Russian Federation and has basic command of conversational Russian.  He has also received his NASD Series Seven License.  His hobbies include monitoring natural gas markets, and researching natural gas exploration and production companies in the United States and in the Russian Federation.  He is an avid weightlifter and lives in Brecksville, Ohio with his wife Anastasia.

 

Natkamol Tayarachakul

Natkamol Tayarachakul received his B.A. in computer engineering from King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang in 2001. He has extensive experience as a programmer, working for companies such as SHELL (Thailand), ISONET (Thailand), and more recently as a web programmer at Cleveland State University. He has been interested in investing in the stock market since he was a junior in college. After working for a few years as a programmer, he realized that his passion is in investment, and his goal is to become a financial analyst. He decided to pursue an MBA with a concentration in Finance. He wants to combine his strong analytical skills with his vigilant awareness of economic and financial trends, and progress along corporate financial analyst tracks.