Meet MS Finance Students and Alumni
Students and alumni of the Vanderbilt MS Finance program come from diverse backgrounds and experiences, and are each taking unique paths forward. Explore the following stories and learn how the MS Finance helped prepare these young professionals for success.
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Danielle Akins
Vanderbilt MS Finance 2009
Financial Risk Management Analyst, Tennessee Valley Authority
Danielle Akins, a math major who had prepared for a career as a teacher, knew all about numbers. Finance, however, was a different matter. Developing skills in that area, she believed, would help advance her career. ... More of Danielle Akins’s Story
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Kari Boersma
Vanderbilt MS Finance 2007
Actuarial Analyst, The Hartford Insurance Company
From the start, Kari Boersma knew she wanted to be an actuary. Before her senior year in college, she worked as an actuarial intern for an insurance company in her native Colorado. After starting the MS Finance program at Owen, she was even more convince... More of Kari Boersma’s Story
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Jun Li
Vanderbilt MS Finance 2006
Senior Investment Associate, Equity Management Associates
A year after completing his MS Finance degree at Owen, Jun Li lead a team that manages a multimillion-dollar investment portfolio in Vietnam and his native China. Through mid-2007, the fund's accumulated return had increased 45 percent, and he worke... More of Jun Li’s Story
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Claire Lyons
Vanderbilt MS Finance 2006
Vice President, Managing Analyst, Piedmont Investment Advisors
Claire Lyons joined the first MS Finance class at Vanderbilt looking for a career as a portfolio manager. She envisioned working in fixed income, but soon realized that equity products better suited her interests and skills. She found support from her MS... More of Claire Lyons’s Story
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Carla Ruiz-Ney
Vanderbilt MS Finance 2009
Capital Markets Analyst, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Given Carla Ruiz-Ney's strong liberal arts education—she majored in Economics and Business Administration at Wesleyan College and completed nine-month internships with Bank of America Mortgage and Merrill Lynch—she set out to pursue a Fi... More of Carla Ruiz-Ney’s Story
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Alex Tellez
Vanderbilt MS Finance 2008
Assistant Vice President and Product Manager, First Hawaiian Bank
At Brown, Alex Tellez's undergraduate classes in option valuation and corporate finance sparked his interest in pursuing a master's degree. The California native looked for graduate schools that satisfied three criteria: a well-known faculty, c... More of Alex Tellez’s Story
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Casey Word
Vanderbilt MS Finance 2009
Actuarial Assistant, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee
Casey Word always knew she liked numbers more than words. From the time she was in high school in California, she planned to become a statistician or an actuary.... More of Casey Word’s Story