Finance students host inaugural Florida Investment Conference
At the event, students from each university had the opportunity to attend networking sessions and hear from industry-leading panelists about career planning in finance and investing strategies. They also benefitted from James Fishback’s expertise as Co-Founder of Azoria Partners and Former Head of Macro at Greenlight in his keynote speech on macro investing. And between sessions, teams from each university competed in a stock pitch competition.
“The conference had many highlights, including the career and investor panels, both featuring professionals from various investment-related backgrounds,” shared Ethan Poliner (BSBA ’24, MSF ’25), who coordinated the event’s program. “Additionally, the stock pitch portion of the event revealed immense talent among the competitor pool, impressing the judges and marking the conference as a success given the thoughtful analysis and presentation of ideas seen across every pitch.”
Along with Ethan Poliner, Eliot Glein (BSBA ’24, MSF ’25) and Nate Marshall (BSBA ’24, MSF ’25) co-directed the event, Josiah Park (BSBA ’26) ran logistics and Reeya Patel (BSBA ’25) performed event marketing, working together to bring the conference to life.
“After having great experiences and placing at multiple stock pitch competitions in 2023, we wondered why nothing similar existed at UF and started to casually have the initial planning conversations,” said Glein.
The team collaborated with the Gator Student Investment Fund and the Finance Professional Development program to connect with Warrington’s expansive alumni network and professional connections, involving notable sponsors to ensure a valuable experience for conference attendees.
“Hosting the conference gave us the opportunity to expand our organizational and time management skillsets, and the short planning timeframe allowed us to think creatively and overcome challenges we never would have expected,” said Marshall.
