Alex Obaza

Student Leadership Profile: Alex Obaza, MBA Finance Association Co-President

Many students find the process of learning about the finance industry challenging. Alex Obaza is here to help. As co-president of the Smith MBA Finance Association, Obaza leads the club in the process of preparing its members for their job/internship searches in the finance industry. Obaza says that preparation of the students is the main goal of the Finance Association, but the club goes beyond just that. According to Obaza, “We also want to continue to build relationships with alumni in capital markets and pass those relationships on to the first-year students and we made it a priority to increase the interaction between first- and second-year students over last year.” Through the efforts of the club, Obaza hopes to grow the finance community here at Smith.

Obaza calls the Baltimore area home. He notes the first year he spent in the area was the last time the Orioles won the World Series. Currently he still lives in Baltimore with his wife of three months and he’s not holding his breath for another World Series anytime soon, given the Orioles recent performance. A graduate of Wake Forest University in North Carolina, Obaza interned at Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown when the tech bubble burst. “It was interesting to see how the panic affected the markets, but not very fun to get a job once I graduated,” says Obaza. Before Smith, Obaza worked at T. Rowe Price for three years in various roles and ended up on the equity trading desk. “My claim to fame was whenever a portfolio manager was on TV, you could see the side of my head on the screen,” says Obaza. He also notes that he is a big sports fan and likes to play tennis and golf whenever he gets the chance.

With the upcoming M&A Competition on Oct. 11-12, free time has been at a premium for Obaza. He notes that “planning is getting pretty hectic as the competition is right around the corner. We have 10 top MBA programs coming from around the world who will be presenting to some very experienced judges. The administration has bent over backwards to make sure that everything will run smoothly and the event wouldn't be half as good without all the help we’ve gotten.”

On why he chose to pursue a leadership role in the Finance Association, Obaza says, “I chose to get involved with the Finance Association because they did a great job of preparing us for our internship searches from the very first meeting. The second-years took the time to answer all of our questions and offered some great advice. I wanted to make sure that the Finance Association continued to be a place where students could come to get the help they needed to get a job in finance. I also wanted to help improve the reputation of our capital markets program. A student from Smith may have a hard time getting the attention of a Wall Street recruiter even though our alums that have been given a chance have done a great job. We wanted Smith students to get the same opportunities as anyone else. As a co-president, my main jobs are to make sure we keep our calendar of events organized and help develop a plan for executing each event.” So for students looking to get involved in the finance industry, Alex Obaza runs a group that has the resources needed to succeed.

▓ Adam Weiner, MBA Candidate 2009, Smith Media Group