LucasBrandtHawkenProjects2024

Upon reflecting on my experience these past few weeks, I feel an abundance of gratitude. Gratitude for the people whom which I got to work, for the people who made said work for, and most of all, for the experience I had and knowledge I acquired.  This knowledge and experience, highlighted by my newfound expertise in excel modeling, understanding of the structure of private equity deals, and ability to read and interpret a company's balance sheet is exactly what I had in mind when crafting my project. With a strong interest and passion for finance and the financial services industry, I felt that an internship at a high level capital management firm such as MAI would net just the results that it did. Additionally, MAI's connection to another passion of mine, sports, made it a near perfect match.  However, things don't always go exactly as you plan. While I learned lots the first week, I spent the majority of my time just following people around and sitting in on meetings, wh...

 In addition to drafting research reports, I have also recently taken on more responsibility in data analytics and presentation constructing.  First, I have been tasked with running the numbers on close to a dozen potential private equoty investments thus far. This entails analyzing a companies balance sheet, and conducting a discounted cash flow analysis, offering a clearer picture of the inner workings of the particular company, how they make their money, what they are good at, and where they struggle. This has required me to improve my skills in excel significantly, and I am proud to say that I have graduated from the mouse and am now able to navigate a spreadsheet using only keyboard shortcuts, knowledge that I feel will help me greatly in future jobs in the business world. These spreadsheets that I construct are then passed onto the alternative investments committee and referenced in meetings held to decide if to make a particular investment or not. Secondly, MAI and thei...

 Since I last wrote, my role as an intern at MAI has expanded drastically. I have gone from largely shadowing and meeting with different employees to learn about their respective jobs to doing real work for both my mentor and the company. One role I have been able to fill is that of conducting actionable research. My mentor mentioned that he has been hearing the term and concept of data centers thrown around a lot lately and they seem to be an investment theme trending upwards with room to grow. To verify this assertion, offer some more clarity on why exactly they make an attractive investment, and ways in which to gain exposure, he had me conduct a research report. To begin this report, I started with the question of what exactly a data center is. Through some digging, I found that a data center is essentially a large warehouse full of computers that house data and processing for companies and firms around the globe. There are 3 main types of these software giants: hyperscalar, co...

As I have mentioned in earlier blogs, MAI is currently in the middle of a private equity fund centered around investment into sports. Now that the fundraising portion of the fund has closed, they have begun capital deployment and are busy meeting with private equity managers of various funds thematically related to MAI's fund. Today, two such meetings occurred, however, a large part of the team was away at a board meeting and unable to attend. To ensure that these absent members received all the information they needed from these meetings, I was tasked with writing detailed summaries of each one.  The first meeting was with a group called Otro Capital. Otro is a private equity company that takes majority control of stable, EBITDA-earning franchises with what they feel is room for growth. For example, about 6 years ago, Otro, foreseeing a rise in interest in Formula 1 racing, bought roughly 60% of one of the 10 formula 1 teams, Alpine. At the time, Alpine was worth around $800 milli...

In my time at MAI thus far, I have been asked to sit in on meetings, listen to people talk, and look over documents, but this week I was asked to do my first real project that would be of value to the firm. MAI can essentially be broken up into two distinct groups: research and investing, and those on the research side spend time doing the due diligence on various securities, ensuring they are both potentially profitable and risk averse investments. Upon assessing these factors, the research team can then choose to add said security to the "approved list", meaning that investors may purchase this security for their clients if they wish.  One class of security that the research team looks into for their investors is mutual funds. A mutual fund is essentially a fund run by professional money managers who invest a pool of money that is aggregated through the investment in said mutual fund. When assessing whether a particular mutual fund will be approved, the research team takes ...

While all days in the world of high-stakes investing are busy, Tuesday, May 14th at MAI was especially busy, marking the official closing of the fundraising period of MAI's first ever flagship private equity fund and beginning of their first ever capital deployment phase. A flagship private equity fund is a pool of capital that exceeds 5 billion dollars in which a firm raises to invest into private endeavors such as startup companies, real estate, or established companies in need to capital to fund expansion. MAI raised the 8 billion dollars for their fund through their very own clients, a unique and somewhat unheard of strategy in the industry, as it opens them up to far more risk than they would normally take on. However, they plan to mitigate this risk through more conservative private equity investments, meaning that the company they are providing capital is already making profit or at least a substantial amount of revenue.  The process in which they select these companies is k...

While my first week of senior project was littered with AP test taking and studying, I was able to do some background research prior to my starting at MAI this Monday. I was told that I would be spending the majority of my time in the alternative investments department, so my research began with answering the question, what exactly are alternative investments? I had a basic understanding in the sense that it refers to investments outside the traditional stocks and bonds, but was able to refine this definition through research and come to the conclusion that it is largely made up of investments in private equity, venture capital, commodities, and real estate. I then looked into various examples of each and began to understand more fully the field of alternative investments. Upon arriving at MAI on Monday, I immediately put this knowledge to use as I sat in on a meeting in which the firm was considering investing capital into a private real estate project. In making the decision if to in...

For my Hawken Project, I will be doing a structured internship at MAI Capital Management with Rick Buoncore. Mr. Buoncore manages money for the likes of Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Maria Sharapova, and other famous professional athletes. In my time with him, I hope to expand upon my understanding of the stock market, money management, and the field of alternative investment, which not only aligns with my academic and career goals, but also offers invaluable real-world experience in the field of capital management. Last summer, I completed a separate internship at another capital management firm, LPL Financial, and was able to observe and participate in the intricacies of the industry, which I feel will serve me well in my time at MAI. LPL, however, is much smaller in scale than MAI, so I am excited to see how a larger firm operates and continue to learn new skills.  Overall, I am extremely excited to get going and eager to learn!