2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006| 2006

Sayan Banerjee graduated from the Bengal Engineering College with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in mechanical engineering. He also holds a MBA from Baruch College. He is a member of GARP and a candidate for the CFA Level II. He has had extensive work experience in the finance industry, working previously at BHF Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup. He currently is a lead business engineer at Credit Suisse.

I chose the Baruch MFE Program because of its good reputation and to be a part of the excellent community of students, teachers and alumni.

Bill Diomis holds a BS from New York University with majors in both Mathematics and Economics. He is a CFA Level II candidate, and prior to joining the Baruch MFE program, worked as a consultant at Burger Creations, Inc. He has been involved in many community service activities, volunteering in the Help Organization for International Students and Big Brothers Big Sisters. His interests include golf, table tennis, and motorcycling.

Studying in the Baruch MFE Program will give me a good exposure to the structured finance world. Also, the commitment of Professor Stefanica in finding job opportunities for the program’s graduates, which I have personally observed during the past couple of months, has made my choice even easier. When I met the current students I realized that the small number of students admitted each year maximizes a strong collaboration among the students in their dedicated quantlab. Also, the faculty that I have met, such as Professor Stefanica and Professor Sherman Wong, are very helpful and open. The addition of Dr. Jim Gatheral to the faculty enhanced the extensive experience of the program it has accumulated during the past 8 years and increased my interest to the program.

Yan Yan Echo holds both a MS and BS in Economics from Fundan University, completed in 2003 and 2000 respectively. After graduation, Yan Yan’s experiences include project management at Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals where she focused on risk control and compliance. She also served as an internal auditor for Ernst & Young and a credit risk analysis supervisor for the Lenovo Group. She currently holds a CFA level 1 designation. Yan Yan hopes to pursue a career in risk management or structured finance. In her spare time, she enjoys a good game of table tennis.

Baruch appeals to me for reasons besides those often-cited ones. First of all, considering the stellar faculty and low tuition, Baruch’s MFE has the highest ROI among similar programs and it is a wise investment for any student who wants to study finance. Secondly, its small class size, family-like atmosphere and active community constitute the network I need as an international student who wants to successfully switch to financial service industry. Last but not the least; I see the growth of the programs in the past several years. I am very happy to be part of your growth. I spent several days reading all Baruch-related threads on quantnet since 2006 and the more I read, the more I realize that Baruch is my best choice, rationally and emotionally.

Yassine Ghalem holds an MS in computer science from New York University Courant Institute and has a Maitrise in Physics from Université de Versailles and a DESS in Physics/Signal Processing from Universite Paris-Est Creteil (Paris XII). His previous work experience includes several years at Merrill Lynch spent developing software for risk metrics.He currently works at Goldman Sachs implementing pricing models for futures, exotic options, and foreign exchange contracts.

I believe Baruch MFE offers a first class program, and -particularly- provides an outstanding support for its students.

Jonathan Jaffe graduated from Lafayette College with a BS in Mathematics. He is a CFA Level I candidate and currently works at Fitch Ratings as an analyst in the Quantitative Financial Research Group. His efforts there include research on credit default swap trading algorithms and implied ratings models. He enjoys snowboarding and volunteering his time as a math tutor.

The quality of education is phenomenal, the close-knit community feel of the student body, the ideal location in downtown Manhattan, the director’s commitment and availability to students, and the placement rate!

Amanda Kotler holds a Master’s of Engineering in Design and Manufacturing from the University of Toronto and an MBA in Finance from the University of Pittsburgh received in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Upon completion of her MBA, she worked as an associate in Equity Research at Caris and Company before transitioning to Renaissance Technologies. She holds Series 7, 55, and 63 licenses. Amanda is interested in quantitative strategy and portfolio analytics. She enjoys ice hockey and snow boarding.

What has struck me the most about the MFE program at Baruch is the small community feel inherent in the program and the vested interest that the faculty take in their students’ success.

Xiaoyong Li graduated with a BS in Finanical Mathematics from Shandong University in 2010. While there he published on periodic boundary value problems for second order integro-differential equations. He also focused on the application of Monte Carlo methods to risk in equity markets. His previous experiences include an intership focused on foreign exchange trading with the Bank of Communications, a leading Chinese commercial bank. Xiaoyong is interested in algorithm trading and enjoys tennis in his spare time.

Programming integrated courses, renowned and dedicated faculty, small class size, great connection between students, faculty and alumni.

Yingxue Li graduated in 2010 with a BS in Shanghai University of Finance & Economics where he was awarded numerous scholarships for his superior academic record. His experience includes an internship in the corporate banking division of the Bank of East Asia, where he focused on statistical methods. Additional work was performed in the risk group of China Construction Bank, where he performed on loan validation and distribution, and risk metrics. Yingxue also has published several papers, focusing on risk. Yingxue plans to pursue a career in quantitative analysis with a particular emphasis on fixed income and risk.

I chose the Baruch MFE without any hesitation because that the class has a small size, the curriculum is very practical, the location cannot be better, some of the faculty are very famous. I firmly believe this elite program can help me realize my dreams.

Yike Lu holds a Bachelors of Science in Physics from the California Institute of Technology. His past research has focused on particle physics and work in computation chemistry, resulting in multiple publications. He also completed an internship at Charles River Associates and has passed the CFA Level I exam. He is most interested in the fields of structured finance and exotic options trading.

I was admitted to BU, Baruch, Cornell (with scholarship), USC, and NCSU. I chose the Baruch MFE because of its best-in-field value, exceptional faculty, personal attention to each student, prime location, practical approach to teaching, and placement record.

Daniela Mihal holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Saskatchewan. Her doctoral dissertation was on the noncompliance, monitoring, and the economic theory in the offsets trading market. She has published and presented a number of papers based on her research. She is currently an assistant vice president in Citigroup’s risk management department.

To sharpen my abilities in applied mathematics and programming as it relates to the financial industry.

Sampad Mishra earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in telecommunication engineering from Vishveshwaraya Technological University and a Master’s of Science degree in computer and systems engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). He received a research assistant scholarship award while studying at RPI. He currently works at Citigroup in the Credit Risk Technology department as an advanced technology associate.

Baruch is the only school I applied to because I believe it is the best place for part time students The flexible curriculum will help me manage my job and studies well. Its presence in the financial center of the world would help me get a lot of career opportunities. The personal attention given by Prof Dan Stefanica is what attracted me towards this program.

Joy Pathak holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Windsor awarded in 2009. While studying, Joy worked for both Ford and General Motors developing statistical techniques to identify sources of faulty parts and wasted materials. He then worked for Syncrude Canada conducting computational and experimental materials research, leading to several publications in the field. Joy is interested in high frequency and algorithmic trading.

The curriculum, top notch faculty,location and the active alumni network were probably some of the biggest highlights of the program for me. The Baruch program has a perfect blend of Finance, Mathematics and Programming that I wanted. The family/fraternity type attitude that Dr. Dan Stefanica has created at Baruch MFE is truly unique and having the opportunity to be a part of it is definitely amazing. Baruch was the best fit for me considering my future goals and ambitions.

Complete details can be found here: http://www.quantnet.com/reasons-i-chose-baruch-mfe

David Rappaport holds a BS from Syracuse University with a major in Computer Engineering and minors in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering. He has spent the last four years as a systems engineer at the Sensis Corportation performing research and development work for NASA. He has been particularly focused on developing superior algorithms for air traffic management. He has published several papers on the topic and recevied the NASA Ames Honor Award for his efforts in 2008. He is interested in high frequency trading and statistical arbitrage.

1. NYC Location
2. Top Tier Program
3. Has an extremely dedicated director that serves as an advocate for both the program and the students. This might be the single biggest factor in my selection of Baruch.
4. Recently hired Jim Gatheral as a professor + updated curriculum
5. Access to high-frequency real-time/historical tic data via trading lab
6. Capstone project
7. Excellent employment stats

Peter Ruse received a BS in Mathematics from City College of New York in 2007, which was granted with highest honors. He also received the Harry Schwartz Scholarship for exceptional aptitude in mathematics and he currently has a publication pending in the journal Topology Proceedings. Peter is interested in high frequency trading and quantitative analysis. In his free time, he enjoys Russian literature and tennis.

I chose Baruch because of the sense of community and strong connections to industry, its convenient location and affordability.

Hans Shmidheiser currently holds a PhD in Mathematics from New York University Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences where he was a Henry MacCracken Fellow. His research has focused on the development and implementation of machine learning algorithms for use by the National Security Agency and change detection algorithms for high-dimensional data streams. Before studying at the Courant Institute, Hans received a BA in Mathematics with High Distinction from the University of Virginia in 2004, where he also received multiple awards for his work in mathematics. Hans is interested in quantitative development and research in the financial field. In his free time, Hans enjoys playing board games and the piano.

I chose the Baruch MFE program because of the special focus on programming and the exceptional placement record.

Katsuyuki Suzuki graduated from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor with a BS in electrical engineering and earned a Master’s certificate in business analysis from Boston University. He started his finance career as a business analyst/application developer at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo, Japan. He also has experience in the finance industry working as a technology manager and derivatives trader. He currently works at Morgan Stanley as a client connectivity specialist.

Baruch MFE program is one of the top programs in the nation, a director with unparalleled dedication, new and relevant courses for today’s markets, and well designed for part-time students who must excel at both their job and education.

William Yang earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2008 and a MS in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California in 2009 where he was awarded the Dean’s Doctoral Fellowship and is a member of Eta Kappa Nu. His past research experience focused on nanowire synthesis for applications in electronics. William is interested in structured finance and risk management.

I chose the Baruch MFE Program because of its community and curriculum. From my interaction with former students and faculty, I have seen how supportive and generous the culture is. Many members of the community have reached out to share their experiences and wisdom with me. I know that I will be spending the next year and a half with students and faculty who are driven, committed and share my passions. Finance is a great way to learn mathematics: The curriculum is demanding and covers many fundamental topics that will strengthen my mathematical foundation and better prepare me for a career in finance. I know I will be ready to successfully pursue whatever challenges I take on with the skill set I will have obtained after completing the program.

Xiurong Zheng earned a BS in Information and Computational Science and a MS in Computer Science and Technology from the Harbin Institute of Technology. Prior to enrolling at Baruch College, Xiurong worked at Sun Microsystems and more recently at IBM as a software engineer. His work at IBM has been focused on developing large-scale distributed file systems. Xiurong is interested in quantitative strategy development and enjoys playing badminton in his spare time.

The Baruch MFE Program is only one I applied to because it is the best fit for me. Small size class and good location provide more chances to contact professor and financial service industry. Curriculum with the balance of finance, mathematics and programming matches my educational background and career goal. More importantly, faculty dedication and family-like academic atmosphere is very unique.

2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007| 2006

Alex Kamarashki graduated summa cum laude as a Honors College Scholar from Kent State University in 2009 with a major in Finance and minors in Economics and Applied Mathematics. He received Kent State University Presidential Scholarship and a member of Beta Gamma Sigma. Alex spent summer of 2008 at Merrill Lynch where he assisted brokers with various duties, mainly screening for stocks and back-testing investment strategies. In joining the Baruch MFE program, he is interested in a career in proprietary trading at a bond /commodities desk in an investment bank. Alex enjoys basketball, soccer, outdoors, chess, raves.

I wanted to attend small program in a big financial center, and Baruch was one of the few options that initially came out. After visiting the school, meeting professor Stefanica, and going over some of the threads in QuantNetwork I realized that Baruch is the right place for me not only because of the mentioned above, but also because of the strong sense of community that is implied by the attitude and commitment of the people associated with the program.

Nicholas Chiang received his Master of Engineering in Materials Science and Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from California Institute of Technology where he worked on various research projects during the summers of 2001-2003. Nicholas was a 2004 Intel Undergraduate Research Contest finalist. After MIT, he worked at Intel as a process engineer. In joining the Baruch MFE program, Nicholas prepares for his future career as a trader or quantitative analyst. In his free time, he enjoys weight training, trading, tennis, and basketball.

I decided to join Baruch because I felt that its faculty and student body create a more friendly academic environment that will better facilitate my transition to financial engineering. I also believe that Baruch offers the best value when compared to other programs with similar reputations.

Victor Istratov graduated magna cum laude from Boston University where he received both of his Bachelor and Master degree in Computer Science. Prior to transferring to Boston University, Victor studied for two years in Physics Department at Moscow State University. While at Boston, he interned in the Fixed Income division of State Street Global Advisors. After graduation, Victor worked as a technical consultant for SAP America in its implementation at major stock exchange. Currently a freelancer specializing in web back-end development, Victor enters the MFE program to learn knowledge and specialized skills to implement and improve quantitative models for risk management, derivatives pricing or algorithmic trading in a hedge-fund or investment bank. He enjoys photography, modern art, snowboarding, and swimming.

Baruch MFE Program combines practical and well-balanced curriculum, dedicated professors, and active alumni network. As I learned from current students, real life applications are emphasized in all classes and instruction is intensive and demanding. On the other hand, there is a great active community around the program which I am exited to be part of.

Ming (Stephen) Jin graduated with an MBA from Goizueta Business School, Emory University, GA where he was a recipient of Goizueta Scholarship. After graduation, Stephen spent two years as a Finance Manager at Abbott Laboratories, Chicago, IL where he analyzed and facilitated investment and organic growth in Asia Pacific markets. Since 2006, he works as Finance Manager for a NYC-based company where his duties include investment analysis and category management. Stephen received his Bachelor of Engineering in Naval Engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University, China. After undergraduate study, he spent five years with Procter & Gamble, China where he eventually rose to the rank of national trade marketing manager. His career interest lies in the field of quantitative portfolio management in an investment firm.

Small class size, best-in-class academics and curriculum, stellar faculty, career service and job placement

Avinash Burra graduated from Columbia University in 2004 with a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering. Since then, he has worked as a Robotic Research Analyst at Surgical Sciences Lab, St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York where he applies mathematical models for flight path analysis of data from the da Vinci Surgical System. An author of multiple abstracts and papers published in various Surgical Technology conferences over the past three years, Avinash received his Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communications Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. Interested in algorithmic trading and various hedging strategies, Avinash hopes to gain practical knowledge from the Baruch MFE program for his future career as a quantitative analyst at a hedge fund or investment bank. He has a wide range of hobbies; among them cricket, soccer, surrealist art, cooking, playing guitar, progressive/experimental rock, music editing and production.

I attended the info session and a class before I applied to Baruch. I was very impressed by the course structure, class size and just the general feel I got from interacting with the students. The location of the school is convenient for me and of course the tuition is affordable.

Emil Gheorghiu holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from University of Craiova, Romania and a Certificate in Java Programming from NYU SCPS. As a quantitative developer at a New York-based portfolio and risk management software firm the past few years, he has involved in the development and design of custom portfolio trade, pricing and risk capturing tools. With an eye towards better risk management in volatile financial markets, Emil plans for a career in model validation and data mining to bring more transparency to pricing and valuation tools. His interests are as wide as politics, finance, math, basketball, European football, tennis, bowling are different.

Baruch provides one of the best available applied oriented MFE programs, where each individual is carefully observed and trained. I was inspired by its students’ community and their passion for advanced financial mathematics when deciding to move towards quantitative finance field.

Aliasgar Haji graduated first class with distinction from National Institute of Technology, India where he received his Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communication Engineering. Upon graduation, he worked as an IT Support Consultant for Goldman Sachs until June 2008. Since then, he has worked as a Senior Analyst at Goldman Sachs where his duties include testing new models for risk calculation, deployment to production, daily delivery of simulated prices of OTC trades, analysis of potential exposure and other risk numbers for institutional counterparts. In joining the Baruch MFE program, Aliasgar aims to work as a quantitative risk analyst developing new models for simulation and pricing used in the calculation potential exposure, Value at Risk and other risk measures for derivative trades. An amateur photographer, he loves to walk around New York City/Jersey City to take pictures of city life. An avid reader, Aliasgar reads everything from SciFi, Satire, and Mystery. He also starts learning to play poker for the past several months.

I did not apply to any other colleges this year. I only applied to Baruch since I believe Baruch’s focus on quantitative methods in the financial industry is in line with my goal of working as a quantitative analyst.

Yoseph Feit graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology where he received both of his graduate and undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering. In joining the Baruch MFE program, Yoseph seeks to return to an investment bank as a programmer in support of the analysis of fixed income and equity derivatives, working closely with traders and quantitative analysts. In his spare time, Yos enjoys alpine skiing and weight training.

Baruch provides a better balance between math and finance course offerings when compared to competing programs run by other universities. The New York location puts it in the center of world finance activity, and reflects the global diversity of student body. The outstanding placement record and reasonable tuition result in a superior return on the educational investment

Daniel Forman holds a Bachelor degree in Physics and Economics from Swarthmore College. A recipient of National Science Foundation REU grant and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research grant, he spent the summer of 2006 at Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC where he designed and implemented laser imaging system for ultra-cold atoms. Daniel also spent the previous summer at Center for Integrated Plasma Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder working on computational simulations of multidimensional plasma structures. For the past two years, he worked on macroeconomic modeling using dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models at Macroeconomic and Monetary Studies Function, Research and Statistics Group, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. His finance interests lie in the area in portfolio or risk management as well as algorithmic trading. Daniel enjoys chess, cooking, rugby.

I was very impressed with Baruch’s sense of community and commitment to teaching. The alumni network seemed to be the most enthusiastic of all the programs, which I believe is a strong indicator of the strength and value of a program. I also felt the teaching was excellent with a great emphasis placed on giving students the necessary skills and guidance to achieve both their immediate and ultimate goals.

Iuliia Palamar graduated from Kiev National Economics University with a Bachelor degree in Finance. A first place winner of the 73rd Kiev National Economics University’s Student Science Conference, she also gained a wide range of professional experience at Prostobank Consulting where she spent two years as a financial analyst performing a great variety of tasks – from conducting market researches and making reports to talking to press and writing small articles to Ukrainian news-papers. In her free time Iuliia usually travels, reads, swims or rides a bicycle. She also enjoys theater and photography arts.

My reasons to apply to Baruch MFE program were impressive employment statistics and rigorous curriculum. Moreover, such facts about the program as personal attention to every student, deep commitment of professors, small class size and strong student and alumni community remind me of my high school, which was a perfect place for studying and personal development.

Bhavna Jhunjhunwala graduated with a Bachelor of Engineer in Electronics from Thadomal Shahani Engineering College, Mumbai, India. As an Event Head of Indian Society of Technical Education Student’s Chapter, she designed a software called “Bears and Bulls” as a part of the online gaming organized in the bi-annual townhall presentation, which simulates real time Stock Exchange and allows the participant to take part in online transactions. Certified as a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD), Bhavna spent four years at Tata Consultancy Services, India’s leading software solution provider and later at investment bank Bank Of America Merrill Lynch, where her duties include translating the exotic trading strategies into technological language using programming skills which were aimed to maximize profits while curtailing systematic and non-systematic risks. Her career interests are research and development of a comprehensive risk assessment model customized for the Indian capital markets. Bhavna enjoys reading, singing and traveling. A NYCares volunteer, she spent time conducting learning sessions for children, cooking and serving food in soup kitchens, delivering meals to senior citizens.

Baruch is a fast track to a high quality of learning which will aid in turning my ideas in to action and I look upon it as the strong foundation on which my career in Financial Engineering rests. A midtown New York location, and an excellent well-versed faculty, makes it an ideal place for studies in financial engineering. Apart from providing the necessary impetus in terms of knowledge and skills, graduate studies at Baruch would expose me to a rich and varied cultural environment and drive me towards excellence. Baruch’s realistic and experiential style of learning speaks more to me than the one-dimensional academics I outgrew as an undergraduate, as well as the chance to personalize a flexible study plan.

Timothy Ko graduated magna cum laude from SUNY Binghamton University with a Bachelor of Science in Financial Economics. He interned at AAFE Community Development Fund (aafecdf.org) where he developed various database solutions in Access to log clients seeking education and counseling services; to manage and track rehabilitation and maintenance costs of the organization’s affordable housing developments; and to use it for reporting and analysis purposes. He later became co-director of Crimson Kings Drum, Fife, and Bugle Corps (crimsonkings.com) where he managed weekly operations, budgeting, and event planning for the organization, a non-profit dedicated to community service and youth education in musical performance. He led the corps in rehearsals, performances, and parades for major holidays and cultural events in the NYC metro area. Tim would like to pursue a career as a quantitative analyst at a hedge fund or investment bank after his graduation from the Baruch MFE program. His interests are music, reading, rudimentary drumming, and puzzles.

Baruch’s MFE Program is my first and only choice because it offers a strong curriculum and committed faculty along with a tight and active community.

Harpal Singh holds a graduate degree in Business Computer Info Systems from Baruch’s Zicklin School of Business. He works as a software engineer at Trizetto Inc where he designs and implements business intelligence and Web base solution products for Health care business using SSAS, C# technology. Harpal plans a career as a quantitative engineer where he can use the quantitative knowledge acquired from the Baruch MFE program to build better financial models. He graduated first class with a Mechanical Engineering degree from Guru Nanak Dev Engg College, Ludhiana, India. He enjoys sailing, mountain climbing and running.

Baruch was my first choice considering the difficulty of program, class size and great resources provided by Baruch College like Subotnik Center for active trade simulation. Located in the heart of world’s financial capital makes this program great and preferred choice.

Andriy Bulava works as a High Yield performance analyst at Rogge Global Partners. He previously spent time at ING Investment Management in various roles ranging from desktop engineer to performance analyst. A recipient of National Science Foundation Scholarship, Andriy holds a Bachelor degree in Computer Science from Hunter College with a minor in Mathematics. He currently takes courses in the Baruch MFE program where he plans to study for a career in risk management in high yield at his current position upon graduation. He enjoys swimming, boxing, power lifting and definitely traveling.

MFE at Baruch College provides hands on practical experience from the first class. In addition, integrating C++ programming language with almost every course played major difference in making my decision regarding school choice.

Joe Ejzak graduated cum laude from Villanova University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and concentrations in the areas of Economics, Mathematics, and Computer Science. He spent his summer of 2008 and beyond as an independent futures analyst. Joe worked with various small industrial companies to effectively hedge their commodity exposures. Joe hopes to leverage his education at Baruch to propel a career in algorithmic trading. In his free time, Joe enjoys playing basketball, weight training, and cooking.

I chose Baruch’s MFE program because it seems to embrace a sense of community among the people involved. With the support of the MFE community and the rigorous program, I am confident that my education at Baruch will prepare me for my future career.

Sanket Patel holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance (Economics) with a minor in Mathematics from Florida State University. While working as a research assistant there, he authored “Index Arbitrage: A Vector Error Correction Model” – a paper investigated cointegration, mean-reverting, and auto-regressive properties of financial time series. Sanket used the results to write an algorithm to identify and exploit pricing errors between the relative levels of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P500. He also authored “Foreign Equity Capital Flows” – a simple investigation of determinants of foreign equity capital flows. The papers attempted to determine whether the flow of foreign equity capital could be justified via modern portfolio theory. This summer, Sanket will intern at Numerix – a leading provider of pricing and risk analytics tools used by many investment banks and trading desks. Taking courses in the Baruch MFE program since Spring 2009, he is very interested in genetic algorithms and machine learning with a ultimate goal of starting his own high-frequency / stat-arb hedge fund. He enjoys watching all types of sports, but particularly the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots. Hobbies include reading financial literature, cooking.

Financial engineering rest on three disciplines: mathematics, computing, and finance. The Baruch MFE provides an excellent mix of all three. Given the applied and hands-on nature of the program, it prepares students for successful careers in the industry. Paired with a director as dedicated as Dr. Stefanica and active alumni community, the program offers an opportunity not found at other schools.

2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006

Aditya Chitral graduated with a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Engineering from Nirma University where he was nominated for the best student award. He interned as research analyst at Anagram, a stock broking firm where he developed portfolio management software. Prior to Anagram, Aditya also interned at Tata Consultancy Services where he worked on code generators. He is interested in risk management and keen to learn about other areas of finance relevant to Indian market. After completing the Baruch MFE program, he plans to work as a risk analyst in investment firm. His dream is to set up an investment firm in India. Aditya spends most of his free time playing tennis and cricket. A devoted follower of Formula I racing. he is an ardent fan of Ferrari and Michael Schumacher.

Bhargav Reddy graduated with a Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, India where he received the Merit Scholarship for academic excellence. He was also the recipient of Pratibha Scholarship from State Government. Bhargav currently works as an analyst at Bank of America where he provides support for structured products trading desk and development teams. He started his professional career with Headstrong, a financial services company where he worked with Bank of America as a client in developing a credit risk management application. After the Baruch MFE program, Bhargav would like to work in a quantitative role in investment bank or hedge fund. He likes to spend free time playing outdoor games (cricket, volleyball, tennis and football). His other pastime activities include following Formula 1, listening to music, solving puzzles and watching movies.

Bin Li holds a Bachelor of Finance from University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), China where he was honored as Excellent College Student and received several Academic Scholarships. As Vice President of Economic Union at UIBE, Bin participated in discussion about economic theories and policies in the real world. He co-authored a book of financial economics with his mentor, finishing two chapters focused on asset pricing and liquidity premium. Bin interned as an analyst at Zhongxin Securities Co. Ltd, where he built volatility estimate model and making analysis based on the model. He also interned at Bank of China as an analyst. After graduation from Baruch MFE Program, Bin plans to join an investment bank or hedge fund as a quantitative analyst. He enjoys reading, hiking, table tennis and swimming in his free time.

Carl Schmidt received a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a minor in Mathematics from Bucknell University. From freshman to junior year, Carl competed on varsity NCAA Division I Cross Country, Indoor Track, and Outdoor Track teams for which he was named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll. He then spent a year after college playing professional poker. He considers himself to be a very knowledgeable student of both the mathematical, game theory side of poker as well as the human aspect of it. For the past two years, Carl has been teaching conceptual and calculus based physics at Wooster School, Connecticut. He joins the Baruch MFE program with the goal of gaining a trading support role after graduation, and then move to an algorithmic trading position. In his free time, Carl enjoys traveling with his wife, competitive running, poker, and chess.

Chuan-Yuan Huang holds an MBA from Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College and a Bachelor of Mathematics from Chung Cheng University, Taiwan. He is working on his CFA L2 exam in addition to joining the Baruch MFE program full-time. Yuan plans to work in the field of risk management or credit evaluation after the program. He enjoys playing softball, watching movies and eating out with friends.

Cristian Matei graduated from University of Bucharest, Romania with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, minor in Mathematics. He has worked at Banc of America where he worked on developing and enhancing risk and PnL management systems for equity derivatives and program trading. Prior to BoA, he spent time at Credit Suisse working on improving the indication of interest system used in NY, London and Hong Kong. Cristian also worked at Ameritrade where he architected, developed and implemented two distributed systems for account aggregation and portfolio reports and alerts. Cristian would like to work on developing new financial products and/or improving existing pricing and risk management models for derivatives, structured or synthetic products. After the MFE program, he would continue his career in a position as a desk quant or as part of a quant/product development group. Cristian enjoys outdoor activities and travel; skiing, swimming and barbecueing are his hobbies. Visiting other parts of the world and understanding other cultures are exciting experiences for him. After trading in his own account he become extremely attracted by the financial markets, and the innovation and creativity that these capital market attracted over the years, Cristian constantly reads financial newspapers and subscribes to financial web sites looking for relationships between events and market movements. Derivatives and engineering new products or cash flows using fixed income, equities and derivatives products are what he enjoys doing for a living.

Doug Reich graduated with Honors from Harvey Mudd College where he received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. During college he attended the US Marine Corps Officer Candidate School, and held job as webmaster for a pilots association and as the student UNIX systems administrator at school. In his senior year project, Doug led a team of five that used operations research to develop a mathematical aircraft scheduling and ticket pricing model for an air charter company’s operations. He currently works as a quantitative analyst at Ithaca Partners, a hedge fund in Connecticut where he performs back-testing, optimization, and execution of trading strategies. Doug hopes the MFE program will further his knowledge as quantitative analyst and eventually prepare him for a portfolio managing role at a hedge fund. In his free time, Doug likes to snowboard, run and ride bike.

Eugene Krel graduated summa cum laude from Baruch College with a Bachelor of Art in Mathematics/Philosophy/NYC Studies. He was an actuarial intern with the New York State Insurance Department where he reviewed life insurance and variable annuity account modifications for current products and new products as well as agent compensation on various life products. A Macaulay Honors College Scholar, Eugene is also member of Golden Key International Honors Society and Dean’s List recipient. His goal is to work in a risk management position in an investment bank or hedge fund after graduation from the Baruch Financial Engineering program. When free, he loves cycling, reading science fiction, traveling to new places and spending time with friends and family.

Fan Zou graduated with a Bachelor of Economics in Finance from Sun Yat-sen University, China where she received First-class Scholarship for Excellent Student (top 5%). She also received a scholarship from the Board of Directors at Lingnan University. Prior to her graduation, Fan spent one semester at HEC, University of Montreal, Canada as an exchange student. Fan spent time at Shenzhen Capital Group, one of China’s biggest venture capital firms, where she worked in the Asset Management Department and participated in both secondary market transactions and stock subscription process. She got introduced into Corporate Banking during her internship at Citibank where she worked in the Commercial Relationship Banking department. Fan plans to work in the area of asset management after her graduation from Baruch MFE program. In her free time, she enjoys playing classical guitar, badminton and traveling with friends and family.

Geoffrey (Ross) Hallock holds a J.D degree from Harvard Law School. He also graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor in Art in Mathematics from Dartmouth College. With more than eight years of experience as an attorney on corporate finance transactions, Ross joins the Baruch MFE program to add quantitative skills to his knowledge of legal aspects of complex financial transactions. Squash and tennis are his hobbies.

Hao He holds a PhD in Mathematics from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he was the recipient of the Math department’s Chancellor’s Fellowship Award. He also graduated with first class honors from Western Illinois University where he received his Master in Mathematics and Academic Excellence Award. During his graduate studies, Hao focused on computational financial mathematics and published a paper under the Black-Scholes framework at Western Illinois University. He also worked on solving financial modeling problems numerically with stochastic processes on large-scale linear programming at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. For his undergrad study, Hao graduated first class honor from Fuzhou University, China with a Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering. After his bachelor degree, he worked as a project manager for a construction company where he was responsible for organizing the construction project, preparing bid estimates, and creating the budget report. After the MFE program, Hao plans to apply analytical and quantitative skills to derivative trading or investment management. In free time, he usually reads novels, watches movies or plays with computers. Hao also enjoys traveling, playing soccer and table tennis.

Jeffrey DeSoto holds a Bachelor degree in Computer Science from Harvard University. He has been working for IPreo, a financial services software company, for the past 2 years. At IPreo, Jeffrey supports and develops municipal bond trading systems used by various major investment banks to make primary issuances. He is interested in algorithmic trading as well as modeling various financial instruments. Jeffrey plans to work for a buy side firm after graduation from the Baruch MFE program. He loves traveling; he spent a year after college working and traveling through Australia, New Zealand and Alaska. Jeffrey also enjoys Crew. He rowed Crew as an undergrad and then coached after graduation.

John Jurcevic received his Ph.D and Master’s degrees in Astrophysics from Indiana University where he is the recipient of College of Arts and Science Fellowship, Teaching Award, J. & F. Swain Fellowship. Prior to his graduate study, John graduated First-class Honours from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia with a Bachelor degree in Physics. Prior to joining Baruch, he had been an assistant professor of physics at Susquehanna University, an assistant professor of physics at Altertson College, and a post-doctoral research scientist at the Astronomy Department of University of Texas. He has also published more than a dozen papers on astrophysics. His interest in finance includes algorithmic trading, alternatives investment, and prop trading. In his spare time, he enjoys reading science fiction and fantasy novels. Cricket and rugby league are his favourite sports.

Joshua Barr graduated cum laude from the University of Arizona as a double major in physics and mathematics. He currently works for the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) as a scientific programmer. Prior to this, he spent time in a similar role at the Steward Observatory. Co-author of three papers related to the development of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), Joshua also conducted a senior thesis studying quantum transport through diatomic molecules. Through the Baruch Financial Engineering program, he is seeking a challenging role in the financial industry in which he can make use of his quantitative and analytical skills. In his spare time Joshua enjoys trading options and traveling.

Jupiter F. Bautista graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of the Philippines where he received a full-tuition scholarship. For the past seven years, he has worked at Goldman Sachs as a Project Manager / Technical Lead managing a team that provides primary global support of several Java/Linux-based metric reporting applications used as risk analysis tools providing information on business trends such as trade volumes and settlements. Jupiter enrolls in the Baruch MFE program to incorporate advanced mathematical modeling concepts into his team’s global metric applications, which process large volumes of collected data, to provide sophisticated ways of performing business trend and risk analysis for management reporting and decision support. He enjoys playing tennis, visiting museums and botanical gardens, walking around the city, working out, taking salsa classes and hopes to very good at it someday.

Ka Wai Lam holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from Columbia University and an MBA from Stern School of Business, New York University. He has been a part of product management group at Misys Plc., a global products and solutions provider for the banking, treasury and capital markets and healthcare industries where his responsibilities include design and development of risk management functions across Misys products. Aspired to be an entrepreneur of scientific computing products, Ka Wai joins the Baruch MFE program to further his understanding of financial products. Swimming, running and playing tennis are some of his favorite activities.

Kevin Deutsch graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Art in Mathematics from Yeshiva University where he received the Academic merit scholarship, completed the honors program, won multiple awards for excellence in math. A talented writer, Kevin co-authored a play that was performed at the university arts festival. After college, he taught and tutored high school math. Kevin recently finished the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at The New School where his thesis was a collection of short stories, some of which have been published in literary journals. During graduate school, he worked as a part-time proofreader for Kaplan educational materials, especially math and science textbooks, teacher guides, practice tests. Kevin’s goal after the Financial Engineering program is to work as a quantitative analyst where he can use advanced mathematics skills. Film, reading, travel, crossword puzzles, watching/playing baseball are some of his hobbies.

Li (Mark) Su graduated from Peking University, China with a Master degree in Economics. He also holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. A recipient of the IBM Scholarship, Mark interned as a computer support specialist at Bank of China where he provided IT operations support to the bank’s Wuhan branch. Currently, he is an assistant portfolio manager at Beijing Wintegrity Investment where he works in equity analysis and portfolio risk management. There, he combines fundamental analysis skills and investment insight with quantitative modeling skills to develop market and industry timing strategies and perform scenario analysis and stress test to enhance portfolio risk control. Prior to this, Mark worked as a financial analyst at Harvest Fund Management in equity research department where his responsibilities included producing investment analysis reports based on company investigation and development of models to forecast targeted listed companies’ financial performance. His first job was assistant to Company Secretary at China Southern Airlines where he dealt with correspondence, conducted research and coordinated the production of company annual report. His goal after the Financial Engineering program is a risk management position in an investment bank. A good Chinese food cook, Mark enjoys traveling, reading historical novels and economic reviews.

Manfung Chow holds a Bachelor of Computer Science from Queens College of the City University of New York where he also second majored in Economics. Currently, he works at Markit Group Limited as a Credit Data Analyst supporting the credit derivative/syndicated loan pricing group. As Markit is the official administrator of several credit indices, Manfung’s duties range from administering the roll of credit indices to providing aid in the generation of research reports. Prior to Markit, he worked at an actuarial analytics firm as a systems analyst. Joining the Baruch MFE in the Fall, Manfung hopes to be in a position such that he can learn new things, and gain new insights on a perpetual basis. Manfung enjoys going to the gym and playing basketball in his free time. As a SAT math tutor during weekends, he loves watching students progress through hardship and hopes to do the same in his future studies at Baruch.

Mathew Mathew holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Finance and Entrepreneurship concentration from Washington University in St. Louis. He interned at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, where he saw what life was like on a trading floor. This internship sparked his interest in options and derivative pricing. Prior to CBOE, Mathew interned at Smith Barney where he assisted the sales manager and many of the financial consultants on a daily basis. He also volunteered for the Linus Foundation, a relatively new non-profit organization where he helped set up social charity events and then coordinated with local charities about the use of the money. His ideal position after the MFE program is to work as a trader at a hedge fund that specializes in derivatives. Mathew spends much of free time browsing the internet and reading news and sports articles. He enjoys watching and playing most sports, especially basketball since he is a big Chicago Bulls fan. Mathew loves to travel the world whenever possible.

Meng Zhao received both Bachelor and Master degree in Computer Science from Harbin Institute of Technology, China where she was the recipient of An Chong-Gen Scholarship and Guang Hua Scholarship. She also holds a MBA for Science and Technology from Queen’s University, Canada. Meng worked as system analyst at MCR Trading where she directed the development of corporate software and systems. Prior to MCR, she worked as project manager and senior software engineer at UTStarcom where she designed and developed software for the 3rd Generation wireless network WCDMA. Meng also developed Ethernet switch software and security software for Lenovo Network and China Computing Network and Information Security Management Center, respectively. After the Baruch MFE program, she likes to pursue a career in structured finance or risk management Her favorite hobbies include swimming, traveling, and cooking traditional Chinese food.

Naing Lynn graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with minors in Mathematics and Business Administration from the University of Bridgeport where he was a recipient of the University’s most prestigious and highest honor scholarship, Academic Excellence and Leadership Scholarship, which was awarded to a few covering full tuition, room and board. Currently, Naing works as a business analyst at JPMorgan Chase in their Equity Portfolio Trading business. Prior to joining JPMorgan, he worked as a technical analyst for UBS and prior to that at Thomson Corporation covering production support, business continuity planning, and technical infrastructure planning. In his over eight years career within the Investment Banking industry, Naing has covered and developed business knowledge in Fixed Income, Futures and Options, and Equity markets. He plans to pursue a quantitative analyst position in investment banking, working either as a market risk analyst or in fields such as security pricing and portfolio structuring. Naing spent most of his free time reading and traveling to some international destinations whenever possible.

Nataliya Saldina graduated from Ivan Franko National University Of Lviv, Ukraine – Dept of Mathematics and Mechanics. In 2007 she has received the Candidate Of Science in Physics and Mathematics. For the past four years, she has been working as a researcher and Professor assistant at Department of Differential Equations. Nataliya have published 8 reports on International conferences and 10 papers in scientific journals. She plans to work in structured finance after graduation from the Baruch Financial Engineering program. Nataliya loves traveling, playing backgammon, reading.

Peter Jay Salzman holds a PhD in Physics from the University of California at Davis where he also graduated magna cum laude with a Master degree in Physics. A recipient of multiple DOE grants and departmental research assistantships, he spent two years on a tenure track teaching numerical physics at Mercer County Community College and a high school course on Linux and robotics. Peter published several papers and books; most recently The Art of Debugging With GDB, DDD, and Eclipse (No Starch Press, 2008). He also authored Solution manual for Physics, the Nature of Things (West Publishing, 1997) while a undergrad at San Francisco State University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and received the Award for Academic Excellence. Peter currently works in the IT Modeling Group for Fitch Ratings where he works closely with the quants and analysts on Residential Mortgage Backed Security (RMBS) products. In joining Baruch MFE program, he would like to learn new ways of applying mathematical methods of physics and engineering to finance. Peter likes to relax to video games, programming, puzzles, and riddles. His long list of favorite things are: sci-fi and fantasy books, collecting mathematical oddities, motorcycling, camping with biker buddies, history, politics, teaching, music, playing guitar, politics, Linux, coffee, and experiencing ethnic foods and cultures.

Prashant Patel holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Stonybrook University, State University of New York. He is a partner in Astoria Capital Management where he is in charge of customer accounts, compliance and designing high performance software to meet customer trading needs. In his previous roles, Prashant designed automated execution systems for high frequency relative arbitrage strategies targeted at Cross Border Arbitrage, Statistical Arbitrage, Risk Arbitrage, Spread Trading, ETF Basket Arbitrage. He also designed and developed algorithmic trading servers and algos as well as order management system enhancements, regulatory, clearing and commission capture systems. Prior to his role in Astoria Capital Management, Prashant worked as a consultant at Transaction Auditing Group where he designed an automated options arbitrage system reading in raw OPRA feed and SIAC feeds. He also worked as consultant at Reuters where he design ed flexible, easy to use front ends for Currency and Repo Dealing systems. Prashant worked as rapid application programmer at Instinet where he supported traders with excel spreadsheets and visual basic programs directly for the trading desk. A Series 7 Registered Representative, he is looking to join a proprietary trading desk or hedge fund trading statistical models after the Baruch Financial Engineering program. His dream is to setup his own multi-strategy hedge fund trading computation based strategies across multiple markets (both geographically and across asset classes) with a particular emphasis on emerging markets such as India. In his free time, Prashant likes reading science fiction, traveling and spending time with family and friends.

Rachit Lahoti graduated from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India with a Bachelor of Technology in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering where he was awarded Institute Merit Scholarship for three consecutive years. After graduation he started his professional career as a Software Engineer at Geometric Software Solutions Limited, leading PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) service provider to the global mechanical design, manufacturing and industrial markets. Rachit later joined Merrill Lynch, Technology Services (India) as an associate consultant in their Global Private Client Division where he worked on the development of Derivative Pricing Application that integrates with QuantLib, an open source library for modeling, trading and risk management, for the valuation of equity derivatives. He was also the member of PCOE (Private Client Order Entry) team, responsible for the development of Order Booking & Order Management system. After completion of the Baruch MFE program, he would like to join a leading financial firm where he can work in the field of Structured Finance. Rachit is a sports enthusiast of cricket, tennis, football, trekking. He also loves music, stock market and keeping himself updated with current affairs.

Roger Trimble received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the famed United States Military Academy at West Point, NY. He spent the next five years as a cavalry officer for a reconnaissance and surveillance squadron in the U.S. Army. After life in the Army, Roger works as a project manager for a semiconductor process equipment manufacturer based out of Long Island, NY. He is interested in working in a portfolio management role for a hedge fund, or similar investment house. In his free time, Roger likes to garden, home brew beer, and wrestle with his toddler.

Satyanandam Gullapudi graduated with honors from JNTU College of Engineering, India where he received a Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communications Engineering. With over ten years in software development, he currently works at Bloomberg as a Senior Software Engineer developing consolidated market data feed products B-Pipe and B-Pod to provide fastest feed to clients at large hedge funds and investment banks. Prior to joining Bloomberg, he worked for Lucent Technologies and Infosys-Nortel in developing telecommunications software for Voice and Data Networks. He received Runner-up Rookie of the year award from Infosys Technologies and Project of the year award from Nortel Networks. Satyanandam would like to become a quantitative strategist developing and implementing financial models. He loves reading technical and financial material, spending time with family and friends.

Shlomi Ben Shoshan graduated from the Israel Institute of Technology, Technion with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering with focus on signal processing and communication. For the past two years, Shlomi has worked at Rafael Advanced defense systems, formerly known as Israel’s armament development authority. There he has worked on development of remotely controlled and autonomic weapon systems that are being used by land forces around the world. Prior to his undergraduate studies, Shlomi has been an infantry officer at Israel Defense Force, commanded 50 soldiers and been involved in active combat operations. After the Financial Engineering program, he likes to work as a quant, and to use the knowledge acquired to develop algorithmic trading methods. A big fan of all sport especially soccer, Shlomi is also a technical scuba diver. He has traveled extensively in Latin America prior to his undergrad study.

Stefan Zota holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he graduated with a perfect 4.0 GPA. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania. Stefan placed 1st place, 3rd place and 3rd place in consecutive Student Scientific Contests for his papers titled “Measuring capacity in high speed networks”, “TCP Servers/Offloading TCP/IP”, “Learning and Inference in Bayesian Networks” respectively. He works at Goldman Sachs, designing event management reporting solution. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Stefan worked for IBM eBusiness Laboratory as an application developer in JSP/Java Bean-IBM WebSphere. Upon completion of the Baruch MFE program, Stefan plans to develop structured finance pricing and risk models at a hedge fund or investment bank. Stefan enjoys playing European football, table tennis, volleyball, bridge, and chess.

Taewoo Son graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea where he received several merit-based scholarships. He went to to earn the Graduate Diploma in Banking and Financial Services at BU Global, Boston University. Taewoo interned at Boston Analytics, Boston, MA, where he populated the knowledge database of the various segments of the U.S. financial market. He also joined in the financial analyst training program at Korean Securities Training Institute, Seoul. He plans to work as a quantitative analyst to apply financial theories to sales and trading strategies and hopefully develop a new simulation-based financial derivatives product. Taewoo enjoys listening to music and traveling around the world. In his free time, he likes to watch and play sports, especially baseball and golf.

Vladimir Toshchevikov was a third year Master in Applied Mathematics and Physics student at the Moscow Aviation Institute, Russia when he transferred to Baruch College where he graduated with a Bachelor in Business Administration degree, major in Finance and minor in Mathematics. After his internship at Grunwald Capital, a boutique hedge fund, he was offered a full time job as an analyst where he is currently doing research and overseeing performance of several proprietary quantitative trading strategies. He is also intensely involved with business development in a number of financial and technology startups in New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Bucharest, Moscow, and Kiev. Upon completion of the Baruch MFE program, he plans to progress further with buy-side institutions, engaging in portfolio management, quantitative research, and algorithmic trading. Vladimir is fond of exploring applied psychology and philosophy. He also enjoys listening to music, reading books, and traveling.

Weidong Huang holds a PhD in Physics from Tulane University, Louisiana where he received full scholarship and worked as a research assistant. He has two papers published in the Journal of Applied Physics. Weidong received his Bachelor of Science in Physics from Tsinghua University, China. Upon graduation, he would like to work in the area of derivatives valuations, algorithmic trading, or risk management. Weidong likes to travel and exercise in the gym in his spare time. He enjoys reading articles in history, natural science and economics.

2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006

Adam Bloom graduated cum laude from Williams College with a Bachelor of Art double major in English and Theater. He spent several years as a software instructor at New Horizons. He later joined JPMorgan Chase as a consultant where he taught internal classes at the Private Bank. Adam currently works as an application developer for the North America Rates desk at JPMorgan Chase where he designs and implements tactical spreadsheet and database application across several trading desks for traders and their middle office support teams. Adam hopes to design larger scale strategic applications for traders utilizing the knowledge learned from the MFE program. He enjoys songwriting, theater, puzzle design.

Akino Yagi majors in Quantitative Methods and Modeling (Operations Research) and minors in Mathematics at Baruch College where she will receive a Bachelor of Business Administration in Sept ’07. A member of Sigma Alpha Delta Honor Society, Akino spent last summer interning at Aozora Bank, Japan in both Asset Management group and Securitization group where her responsibilities included analysis of performance of the portfolios of the mutual funds, correlation between stock price indexes and interest rates, and research on rating system by Moody’s of asset backed securities. Akino plans to study credit risk, derivatives and risk management for a career in risk control group at an investment bank. She enjoys reading and cooking.

Andrey Shvets graduated cum laude from Baruch College where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with Finance major and Mathematics minor. He worked as advisor for Primerica Financial Services, Citigroup. Andrey joins the Baruch MFE program to be more quantitatively challenged and prepared. Upon graduation, he would like to work for an international boutique firm or a hedge fund. During free time, Andrey likes learning new things, swimming, soccer and skiing/snowboarding every winter.

Anshul Laad graduated from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India where he received both his Bachelor and Master of Technology degrees in Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science. He was a recipient of IIT Bombay Heritage Fund Scholarship throughout his undergraduate as well as graduate teaching assistantship. Anshul is interested in finance which he plans to study further in Baruch MFE program where he can also strengthen his engineering skills. After the program, he likes to start as a quantitative analyst in a firm where he would have opportunities to learn various aspects of business and eventually starts his own. In his free time, Anshul likes reading, sport, traveling and robotics.

Barnett Feingold graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University as a College Scholar. He currently works as a technology analyst at a boutique investment bank focusing on early stage science and engineering companies. Prior to this, he was co-founder of a biotechnology company that was ultimately acquired by Celgene Corporation. Barnett is a co-inventor of two published in-process U.S. patents dealing with systems that maintain data integrity of tests results of clinically relevant human stem cell samples. He is a recipient of the Heerman’s and McCalmon Writing Award. Upon the completion of the program, he looks forward to joining a technology-focused group at an investment bank or hedge fund. In his free time, Barnett enjoys spending time with his family.

Daniel Gwertzman received a Bachelors of Business Administration Degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison with a major in Finance, Investment, and Banking. He has also completed coursework in math and programming at Rutgers University. Daniel is employed as a Central Pricing Associate with GlobeOp Financial Services where his responsibles include pricing, valuing and validating of OTC derivatives using proprietary pricing models. He also reviews OTC derivative valuation statements from trade counterparties, using market indices, yield curves and volatility surfaces. After the Baruch MFE program, Daniel will seek a portfolio management position with an alternative investment firm. In his spare time, Daniel enjoys weight lifting, running, racquetball, playing guitar, and socializing in New York City.

Dmytro Pokhylko graduated with 4.0 GPA from Baruch College where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in International Business and Marketing. A member of National Dean’s List, Golden Key Honors Society, Beta Gamma Sigma Honors Society, NYC Urban Fellows Program, Dmytro has interned at UBS, Vault.com. He received a Specialist degree in Finance and Banking from Institute of Business and Advanced Technologies, Ukraine where he graduated with honors. His honors thesis was titled “The Effect of Marketing Activity on Companies’ Financial Position”. Dmytro joins the program to be constantly challenged intellectually. He enjoys music (from JS Bach to J Cage to Aoki Takamasa), gadgets, biking, skiing and beach volleyball.

Ed Coffey received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University where he worked on protein purification and published an article titled “Purification of a vinculin binding protein from smooth muscle. He spent two summers interning with Genentech in their Process Sciences division prior to his graduate study. Ed received two Master of Science degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute – in Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics. At RPI, Ed studied medical imaging techniques, worked on an electrical impedance tomography system, and published an article titled “A Layer-stripping Reconstruction Algorithm for Impedance Imaging”. While in grad school, he started working for a small software company and have been in the software industry ever since. He currently is Director of Impementation at InterGis, a logistics software company. In joining the Baruch MFE program, Ed plans to be a front-office quantitative analyst for a buy-side firm. He enjoys reading, working out, and watching the Red Sox when they are winning.

After earning a BA in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles, Erich Wood moved to New York and began working on educational software. Shortly after, he founded a technology company that survived for eight years before finally closing in 2003. He then went to work at an energy trading and risk management (ETRM) software company where he remains today as manager of 14 business analysts, QA analysts, and engineers. He has developed agile development methodologies helping the small company to quickly meet fast-changing business requirements and win contracts with large energy clients. In 2005 Erich began studying economics again with courses such as regression analysis, portfolio management, and macroeconomics. He joins the Baruch MFE program in order to gain a deeper understanding of financial instruments, markets, and deal-making. Upon the completion of the program, Erich plans to earn a position in structured finance or energy trading and to study languages. Erich enjoys many hobbies including travel, carpentry, writing, audio/video editing, and sports. But by far his most active hobby is photography, maintaining a black and white photography Web site of his portfolio. Erich earned a scholarship for photography but chose to study economics instead.

Feixiang Xie received his Ph.D. in Physics from Peking University, China where he was a lecturer, teaching various courses to undergraduates and conducting research on super-conducting electronics. He received his Bachelor of Science in Physics, minor in Electrical Engineering from Dalian University of Technology, China. He worked as engineer at Shanghai Automation Instruments, Co, China where he helped developing industrial thermometers. After graduation from Baruch MFE program, Feixiang would like to work as a quantitative researcher for a financial institution, applying his mathematical background, analytical ability and programming skills to the area of finance. In his spare time he enjoys hardware DIY and various outdoor activities.

Jacob Hendrickson graduated with honors from Wesleyan University where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture. He spent several summers interning at various architecture firms in France and NY. Jacob later enrolled at Courant Institute and received a Master of Science in Computer Science from NYU. He worked for several computer graphic firms which specialize in 3D animation as well as composition for films and TV. In addition to network administration duties, he also wrote image processing plugins for compositing software. Jacob has been writing software for Etrade Financial since 2004. After the MFE program, Jacob is interested in working in the area of algorithmic trading where he can utilize his experience in software development. In his free time, he enjoys playing basketball, cycling and photography. Jacob is a native New Yorker and a big Yankees and Knicks fan.

Jacques Makutonin received both his Master degrees, one with concentration in IT and another with concentration in Corporate Administration from Engineering School in Computing and Industrial Production Management, France and from Institute of Corporate Administration, France respectively. He later enrolled in Baruch College Zicklin School of Business Full time Honor Program where he graduated with an MBA (major Finance). After completing his education in France Jacques started his career as an Information System consultant at Altran where he designed the architecture of Siebel Projects for Bouygues Telecom. After a couple of years he moved to Poland to open an Internet Cafe which he managed for a while. When he recently moved to New York to start the MBA program at Baruch College, he had the opportunity to work for the NYC Government and later on for Citigroup Alternative Investments as a Business/MIS analyst. He recently worked for a French Bank, CIC, as a Risk Management Analyst in the fixed income branch. A recipient of full-time MBA academic scholarship and graduate assistantship, Jacques is also President and co-founder of the Zicklin International Student Association and Member of the Baruch College Team for the Investment Research Challenge. After the MFE program, Jacques plans to work as a quantitative analyst/modeler at an investment bank or hedge-fund. He is passionate about cross-sectional predictability. In his free time Jacques enjoys traveling, kungfu, playing basketball, and spending time with family and friends.

Jason Tung graduated from Baruch College with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Economics and minor in Math. He interned at Hendrickson & Company in Investment Banking where he analyzed live deals, worked on offering memorandums, and prepared valuation spreadsheets. Jason currently works as a trader at Nuverse Advisors, a multistrategy hedge fund where his responsibilities are to execute equity, futures, fx, and option trades for the fund. He also utilized VBA programming to design custom spreadsheets synchronized with a Bloomberg to monitor the portfolio and identify trading opportunities. A holder of CCNP, CCDP certificates, Jason joins the MFE program to further his career combining his knowledge of the market with the technical training in the program. Jason enjoys running, lifting weights, and playing basketball.

Jason Korpics graduated with a degree in Mathematics from Penn State University. Presently, he works for RiskMetrics Group as an Analytics Programmer. Prior to RiskMetrics Group, he was the tech lead for the “HedgePlatform” product. Jason has experience coding in Perl, Java, and C++. His prior work experience includes working for CBS Sportsline.com, Fantasy Sports Development Team and for IBM as a developer. Jason is hopeful that through Baruch MFE program he will become more aware of the various opportunities available to him. First and foremost is to be better equipped for his current role within RiskMetrics Group, leaving open possibility of finding new areas of interest. In his spare time Jason likes to exercise and read financial/mathematical books. He enjoys time with his two children and wife, loves to watch and play sports, especially football and makes a point each season to either take in a Penn State game or a few Army games.

Jonathan Cardenas graduated with honors from City College, NY where he recieved both a Bachelor and Master of Science in Electrical Engineering. He was the recipient of the National Science Foundation – Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship. For his Masters thesis, he designed Vlsi high-speed arithmetic circuits and developed simulations using Cadence,Vhdl and Matlab. While in graduate school, he also worked as an academic advisor and conducted specialized engineering workshops for engineering students at City College. Currently, he is finishing his first year of MBA coursework at the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College. Jonathan intends to enhance his analytical/technical skillset and to explore other career opportunities available in the financial industry. After completion of the MFE program, he plans to become a quantitative analyst/programmer at an investment bank or hedge fund. In his free time, he enjoys kung-fu, watching movies, reading, viewing YouTube, and spending time with family and friends.

Lin (Claudia) Li graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a Bachelor in Economics from Peking University, China where she was honored as Best Graduate Student and a recipient of WuSi first class scholarship. Claudia has published a nano-technology paper on Applied Physics Letters. She later received a Master of Science in Physics from Drexel University where her biophysics research involved computational and statistical methods such as Markov process, Langevin approach. Claudia joins the Baruch MFE program to learn how best to combine her research and quantitative skills with knowledge in the areas of finance. She plans to later join an investment bank as a quant working with fixed income products. In her free time, Claudia loves reading, travelling, cooking. She also enjoys swimming, singing and watching movies.

Matt Feinstein graduated from Cornell University, School of Arts and Sciences where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He later received a Master of Science in Information Systems from George Mason University, School of information Technology. Matt spent time at FEMA as Computer Specialist in which he managed technology for the Office of Inspector General. He later worked as Programmer/Analyst at Merrill Lynch where he played various roles in Fixed Income Research and Product Risk. Matt spent a stint as Quantitative Analyst at Overture Financial where he was responsible for performance and risk analytics for asset managers and portfolio strategies. As a CFA Charterholder, he currently consults various financial services firms in quantitative data analysis projects. Matt joins the program to prepare for a position in Risk Management or Structured Finance after graduation. In his free time, Matt volunteers with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Michael Kolstee graduated cum laude from Binghamton University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and an MBA with Graduate Assistantship consisting of full scholarship and stipend. After college, he has worked for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions where he managed research and development of many GMAT and GRE products, as well as writing the majority of the math content in these classroom-based course books. After completing the MFE, he plans to seek a position as a quantitative analyst in an investment bank. In his free time, Michael likes to travel to other parts of the world, enjoys great meals with friends, explores NYC, and relaxes in the park.

Muting Ren received a BA in finance from the University of International Business and Economics. He worked as a fixed income analyst at Penghua Fund Management where his responsibilities included monitoring economic variables and portfolio risk analysis. Prior to this, he had interned at Bear Sterns & Co. (China) and Guotai Junan Securities Research Institute. Muting was a Beijing Honorary Student and received several First Prize Academic Scholarships and Enterprise Scholarships. He co-authored a book with his mentor, writing a chapter on liquidity risk. After graduation from the Baruch MFE program, he will seek a position in risk management at a large international bank. Muting aggressively participates in discussions about the Chinese economy and is Vice President of a student organization focusing on economic issues. In his spare time, he enjoys swimming and basketball.

Rachit Gupta graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India with a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering. He ranked 1st in his batch and received the Institute Medal for the best undergraduate project. Upon graduation, he worked as a software engineer in Infineon Technologies, where his work was related to the design and development of USB and Infrared Protocol stacks. Presently, he is involved in the implementation of computer vision algorithms for image registration at Kritikal Solutions Pvt Ltd. After the successful completion of the Baruch MFE program, he plans to obtain a position as a quantitative researcher and programmer at an investment bank. In his free time, Rachit likes watching movies, making models and spending time with friends and family.

Radha Krishna received a Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and an MBA (Finance major) from the Indian Institute of Management, Indore. He was involved in the development of a CRM product for British Telecom, UK where his responsibilities included developing algorithms relating to intelligent routing of technicians to service requests. Radha was the co-founder of “NumberPlus”, a voice enabled contact management web service based out of India. During a short stint at GE Capital in their Quality department, he used 6 SIGMA methodologies to make process improvements. He later worked as a senior consultant developing customer retention models for an MBS portfolio in Modelytics, a boutique consulting firm based out of Bangalore where he developed segment specific models for customer retention campaigns. He worked as a Senior Analyst at Fidelity Investments where he investigated the investment effectiveness of FPI, a business unit of Fidelity Brokerage. Radha plans to join an investment bank as a quant modeler after completion of the Baruch MFE program. In his free time, he likes to track tech startups, develop online games and oil paint.

Satnam Singh received a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from Regional Engineering College, Kurukshetra, India and an MBA in Finance and Investments from Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College. Satnam’s professional experience includes positions at two Manhattan-based Real Estate Investment Trusts where his responsibilities included modeling and forecasting their portfolios. He expects to further enhance his quantitative and modeling skills from Baruch’s MFE program. In his free time, Satnam enjoys spending time with his family and friends, participating in endurance sports and outdoor activities.

Sandeep Panjwani received a Masters of Technology in Structural Engineering and a Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India. He works as a Business Analyst for MarketRx Inc where he is involved in sales forecasting and trend analysis using various statistical models to enable the client to improve effectiveness within and across key sales and marketing areas. Prior to that he was a Software Engineer for IBM Global services in India where he analyzed business flows, designed and developed modules in Java. He was the recipient of the merit-based scholarship offered by Ministry of Human Resource, Government of India. Sandeep holds various certifications in Financial Markets, among them Derivatives Market (Dealers) Module, Securities Market Module both from National Stock Exchange (NSE), India. Upon graduating the program he would like to combine his quantitative, financial, and programming skills to create trading models or pricing applications. In his spare time Sandeep likes to read books, work out in a gym and listen to music.

Siqiao (Vic) Xue graduated with Bachelor of Science in Economics from Nanjing University, China where he was a recipient of People’s Scholarship. He ranked 2nd statewide in 2005 China Undergraduate Mathematics Contest in Modeling. Siqiao also received 2007 Society CFA scholarship. During his study, he has interned at Research Institute, Huatai Security Co. Ltd, where he assisted in building risk management and volatility estimate model using Matlab. Siqiao joins the Baruch MFE program to learn practical skills which prepare him for a position as financial analyst in structured products research. He was captain of his department soccer team. He also helped moderating the online finance forum at Nanjing University. Siqiao was also a volunteer for China Open Resource for Education where he translated linear algebra teaching materials from MIT Open Course Ware. He has been trained intensively for 6 years in Chinese traditional calligraphy.

Soumya Vasudevan graduated First Class from University of Madras, India where she received a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronics. Her final year engineering project involved writing a C++ application that helped size transistors in amplifier circuits using genetic algorithms. Soumya later studied at Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, India where she graduated First Class with Distinction and received an MBA, Finance major, and minor specialization in Operations Research. She joined Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research as a sell side equity analyst, tracking 20 companies in the Medical Devices sector. Certified by the National Stock Exchange of India in Derivatives, Commodities, and the Wholesale Debt Market modules, Soumya is interested in structured finance, pricing of exotics and credit derivatives. After the MFE program, she plans for career in structured products, quantitative research or risk management. In her free time, Soumya enjoys playing the guitar, horse riding, reading, and participating in animal welfare activities.

Steve Townsend received a degree in Mathematics from Christ’s College, Cambridge University, UK, Upper Class Second. Currently, Steve is a Vice President at Credit Suisse in the Fixed Income Derivatives Products group. His responsibilities include research and analytics server-side development. Prior to CS, he was a developer of equity sell-side Order Management System for Lava Trading and worked for Microsoft Corporation as a software development engineer. Steve is an experienced team leader, with a solid understanding of finance and mathematics. He expects the Baruch MFE program to enable him to be a more effective leader of quantitative developers. Steve enjoys traveling, skiing, listening to music, New York City culture, and keeping up with the latest news on current affairs, quantitative finance and software development. In his free time, Steve loves spending time with his wife, daughter, and the family pets.

Subramaniam Venkiteswaran graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Science and Engineering from University of Madras, India where he was recipient of Merit Scholarship award in sophomore and junior years. He went on to study at University of Texas at Austin where he received a Master of Art degree in Computer Sciences. In 2005, Subramaniam interned at Goldman Sachs in the Equities group. He also published a paper titled “Cooperative Caching with Keep-Me and Evict-Me” at the 9th Annual Workshop on Interaction Between Compilers and Computer Architectures (Interact-9, San Francisco, 2005). He has been at Bloomberg L.P. since early 2006 where he works on trading systems software development. In joining the MFE program, Subramaniam looks to further his skills in models development for pricing various complex financial instruments. He loves to read about contemporary developments in various parts of the world in his free time.

Vadim Nagaev received a Master Degree with honors in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Ufa State Aviation Technical University, Russia. He wrote a final qualification thesis on Support System for Making Decisions on MICEX and the RTS for Arbitrage Operations Performance. He also developed the financial model and software for an investment bank. He worked for several years as a business and financial analyst at Bashpharmacy Company where he led business projects, performed business plans, and developed financial and strategic models. After graduation he plans to join a investment bank or hedge fund as a quantitative analyst. In his free time, Vadim enjoys spending time with friends. He also enjoys reading, playing chess, tennis, volleyball, and takes an interest in history.

Vineet Bansal graduated with a Master of Technology and a Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India where he received a scholarship of academic excellence. Vineet has interned at the University of New Castle, Australia where he developed and simulated models for mineral processing techniques. He was also an Intern at Quantum Phinance, Mumbai, India, which is a financial engineering firm providing customized solutions to the financial services sector, where he developed price models for credit derivatives using Visual C++ and VBA. For his Masters thesis, funded by Volkswagen, he worked at the Max Planck Institute of Complex Non-Linear Dynamics where he developed models for chemical reactors to detect and analyze non-linear dynamics. Vineet aspires to work at an Investment Bank as a quant researcher or risk manager with a high interest in moving to the trading side in the future. In his free time, he enjoys writing, traveling, working out at the gym, watching movies and listening to music. He is a sports buff and enjoys cricket, badminton and field hockey.

Xin (Sunny) Lu graduated with a Bachelor of Computing with Honors from National University of Singapore, where she was a recipient of the Singapore Ministry of Education Scholarship. Prior to coming to Baruch, she worked at Citigroup Singapore in the Corporate and Investment Bank Division doing e-business. Her primary responsibility was to help deliver the financial products of Citigroup through electronic platforms and hence increase the market presence of the company in the Asia Pacific region. She was also involved in the building of various calculation and trading models and the support of Citigroup’s online trading system using VBA, C++ and JAVA. Sunny joins the Baruch MFE program to further her knowledge in quantitative finance and plans to work in the area of quantitative analysis or structured finance after graduation. In her free time, Sunny enjoys traveling, listening to music and reading.

Yavuz Varoglu received a PhD in electrical engineering from Northeastern University. He graduated with a Master of Science in computer engineering from University of Massachusetts Amherst where he also received a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering with a minor in mathematics and is a member of Tau Beta Pi. Yavuz has worked as a software engineer and has more than ten years experience in design, implement and support commercial systems. He is interested in joining the trading desk of an investment bank to apply his software and asset trading knowledge. In his spare time, Yavuz likes to read, cook, travel and swim.

Zheng Chao graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Economics/Finance from Nanjing University, China. A winner of People Scholarship for three straight years, he was recipient of the Technological Innovation Award in Dec. 2006. His publication, “Will Commercial Banks Extinguish?” appeared on Management and Administration (ISSN1003-3475), Vol. 268, 27-28, Oct, 2006. Zheng interned at Hong Kong Forex Investment Ltd., a brokerage company based in Hong Kong, where he participated in bullion and foreign exchange trading with the staff, studied actual cases, and forecasted the trend of gold price and exchange rates. He later went to Suzhou City to help China Unionpay Co., Ltd Jiangsu Branch with the development of new software for POS terminals and was in charge of upgrading the outstanding POS terminals to the newest software. Upon completion of the Baruch MFE program, Zheng plans to work in an investment bank as an analyst or a portfolio manager. An accomplished basketball player and guitarist, he likes reading books, especially on history, politics and economics.

2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006

Alain Ledon received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from New York Institute of Technology where he was a recipient of the Louis Liss Memorial Award and a member of the Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society. He later received a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from New York University. Alain has spent the last eight years working in the financial industry as an Application Developer for information delivery systems, first in securities lending and now in investment manager services for State Street Corp. He plans to use his training from the program to obtain a quantitative position in a hedge fund. He hopes to later move to a trading position and eventually open a hedge fund with his business partners. Alain ran in the 2004 NYC marathon and 2005 Marine Corps marathon. He enjoys spending time with his wife and family during his free time.

Prior to joining the MFE Program, Andy Nguyen was a PhD student in Mathematics at the Graduate Center, CUNY. He holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from Lehman College, as well as a double BS summa cum laude in Mathematics and Computer Science. While in graduate school, he worked as a lecturer at various CUNY colleges teaching mathematical courses. During his undergraduate study, Andy received numerous scholarships and awards for his excellent academic record, community service, and extra curriculum activities. Most notably, he has received CUNY’s prestigious Belle Zeller scholarship, the Golden Key National Honor Society Outstanding Junior Scholarship, and the Lehman College Outstanding Student of the Year Award. Andy enjoys mathematical competitions. As President of the BBC Math and Computer Science Club, he was the Northeast region champion of the AMATYC Math League competition and champion of the CUNY Student Math League competition. He also spent two years at IBM’s T.J Watson Research Lab as an intern programmer in the Enterprise Networking Group. Andy hopes to learn how best to apply his mathematical background, analytical ability and programming skills to the area of finance. Upon graduation, he would like to work in structured finance at a hedge fund or investment bank. In his free time, Andy enjoys watching movies, sports, reading computer publication and spending time with family and friends.

Ari Braha holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics with honors from Rutgers University. While in school, he participated in math seminars, mentored fellow students in calculus, and played intramural sports. Upon graduation, he began his professional career as an actuarial analyst for a mid-sized insurance company, where he aided the Chief Financial Officer in overall pricing of all the core lines of business using classic rate monitoring techniques. In addition, he priced more exotic contracts, including generation outage and other weather derivatives, using @RISK simulations. Ari chose to matriculate at Baruch’s MFE program to sharpen his abilities in applied mathematics and programming as it relates to the financial industry. Ari plans to work for either an investment bank or at a hedge fund in structured finance. In his free time, he loves playing basketball, skiing, and playing poker.

Bridgett Xia graduated with University Honors from Brigham Young University where she received a double Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Economics. As an undergraduate, she received various scholarships and research grants and completed two research projects in partnership with faculty from multiple disciplines at BYU. Her honors thesis was on digital image analysis and application in computer science. She also initiated and conducted research on women’s education in rural China. Bridgett interned in Washington D.C. with the World Resource Institute and various start-up companies in Utah. After graduation from college, she moved to New York, where she first worked at ABN Amro. She currently works as a financial analyst at Bear Stearns. Upon completion of the program, she plans to work in a structured finance environment at an investment bank or a hedge fund. She enjoys outdoor activities and loves to travel and visit friends.

A graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, Christopher Chu holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He is an IT director at a NY–based distribution and logistics company where he advises the company’s Chief Operating Officer on ways to improve workflow processes and identified pain points. He has written database applications using VBA, SQL, and .NET professionally for the last four years. Using his experience in programming and business logic, he planned and created mission-critical applications and reports that helped increase overall efficiency and productivity within all departments in the company. Currently, Christopher is enrolled in the Computer Science BA program at Queens College, CUNY, where he is working to further advance his knowledge of Computer Science and Mathematics. Christopher joined Baruch’s MFE program to hone his abilities in programming and business. Upon completion of the program, Christopher plans to become a data analyst in an investment bank where he can use his skills to implement sophisticated modeling and data applications in finance. He enjoys reading and spending time with his family. An avid runner, Christopher will be participating in the NYC Marathon this year.

Danielle Trichilo graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Economics and Management. She has been working at JP Morgan Chase for the last eight years, first as a financial intern and later as a Quantitative Research Associate in Asset Management, US Equity group. Her responsibilities include conducting investment signal research to enhance current models. She also performs risk analytics on US Large Cap portfolios and conducts research on portfolio construction and optimization. Danielle is a CFA charter holder. She enjoys watching sports, reading and spending time with friends.

Dmitriy Reznik holds a BS in Computer Science from Polytechnic University. His first job was as a Technology Analyst at Marsh, Inc., where he developed components and tools for software distribution, performance monitoring, and analysis. He later worked as a Senior Developer at X-change Technologies where his responsibilities included design and development of trading exchanges for corporate and municipal bonds and equity. Presently, Dmitriy is a System Architect at Caxton Associates, LLC. His responsibilities include design and development of trading applications, pricing and market data tools and the integration of diverse applications and systems. After completing the program, Dmitriy would like to combine his quantitative, financial, and programming skills to create trading models or pricing applications. In his free time, Dmitriy spends time with his family, traveling, and taking pictures.

Eric Roberts holds a Master of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Arizona, as well as a BS summa cum laude in Mathematics from Wake Forest University. He co-founded a successful internet-based company which he sold prior to graduate school. Eric currently teaches mathematical courses at Baruch College. He hopes to use the applied mathematics, programming and financial knowledge learned from the program to obtain a position as a financial analyst in an investment bank. Eric enjoys hiking, snowboarding, making music, reading, sailing, and playing backgammon, tennis and Frisbee. When possible, he also loves to travel.

Frank Mastromauro received his Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Engineering from Polytechnic University. As an undergrad, he received the University’s prestigious Principal Scholarship. Frank subsequently earned an MBA with honors from St. Johns University while working full-time for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection as a project manager for which he received the Mayor’s Graduate Scholarship. He also co-authored a paper on brokerage trading which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Global Business and Technology. After graduation, he held various positions with JP Morgan Chase but spent a majority of his time as an Equity Product Manager. Frank currently is a Vice President Capital Markets Equity Syndicate at Bank of America where he assists with the development of retail syndicate and is responsible for growth of the business in the firm. Frank joined Baruch’s MFE program to further improve his knowledge and quantitative skills in a financial environment. Upon completion of the program, he plans to apply the skills he acquires to the areas of capital markets. With his MBA background, Frank would like to eventually take on a management role in capital markets at an investment bank. In his free time, Frank enjoys cooking, reading and fine dining with family members.

Giampiero Lo Monaco holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Computer System Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he graduated cum laude. He spent the summer of 1999 interning as an Internet Infrastructure Analyst at Goldman Sachs where he helped with the design and deployment of a VPN network infrastructure for over 4000 corporate clients and employees. Currently he works for a network management company where he designs networks for corporate enterprises, government agencies, telecommunications manufacturers, and service providers. After the program, Giampiero would like to join a Quantitative Finance Group at an investment bank to work on the development of algorithmic trading applications. He enjoys playing soccer and eco-tourism.

Gregory Sipress holds an MA in Computer Science from Boston University, an MS in Business Computer Information Systems from Baruch College/Zicklin School of Business, and a BS in Mathematics from the State University of New York at Albany. In May, 2006, Gregory became a partner at TraderEx, LLC, a financial software company specializing in developing market simulation software. He spent 2005-6 designing and developing the TraderEx application. Gregory began his professional career designing Health Care Information Systems for various hospitals and health care providers. When not coding simulations, he enjoys playing golf; he is co-founder and CIO of Golfinity Inc., a golf handicap tracking online company.

Hasan Islam graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He holds an MS in Engineering Science from Louisiana State University. Hasan currently works at Information Builders as a senior software developer. His responsibilities include development, enhancement and the maintenance of major corporate systems. He plans to join the Baruch program to improve his knowledge of the theories and practices in financial engineering. Upon successful completion of the program, he hopes to obtain a position as a quantitative researcher and programmer in order to best utilize his programming skills. Hasan likes to watch soccer and baseball and spend time with family and friends.

Maciej Cierpka received a full scholarship to participate in the prestigious Double Diploma Program in Finance and Banking. Upon his successful completion of the program, he obtained a Master of Science in Finance and Banking from Warsaw School of Economics and a MBA-equivalent Diplom-Kaufmann Degree from University of Mainz, Germany. He wrote his graduate thesis on modeling correlated defaults in reduced form credit risk models. Prior to joining the program, Maciej worked at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, a German investment bank, first as an intern in the Fixed Income Product Control division in Frankfurt and later as an analyst in the Equity Product Control division in New York. Currently, he works for ING Investment Management in New York as a Research Analyst in the Derivative Strategies department where he quantitatively analyzes the macroeconomic data, monitors risk and exposure for options strategies, and creates tools needed for the development of derivative strategies. He hopes to use his finance background and the quantitative skills learned from the program to develop investment strategies based on the quantitative analysis of market data. He loves ocean sailing, windsurfing, skiing and hiking the Adirondack Mountains in New York.

Maxym Rumyantsev graduated with a Diploma of Honors from the National University of Ukraine where he received a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering and Fluid Mechanics. Prior to joining the program, Max worked as a C++/Java software developer for several projects utilizing various numerical methods and programming skills to solve practical problems. In addition, he conducted two marketing researches, supervised website development for an independent informational agency and worked as an energy market analyst. Upon completion of the program, Max plans to work as a quantitative researcher for a financial institution where he would apply his programming skills and financial knowledge to finance. In his free time, he enjoys digital photography, participating in sports, reading, listening to music, and watching movies.

Nalin Aeron graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, with a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering. He ranked 17th in the State Science Talent Search Examination and won the Early Bird Prize at the Robotics Festival, IIT Bombay in 2000. He has spent time as a member of product development and implementation team for the World’s number one banking product, Flexcube, for Citibank Bahrain and Citibank Bulgaria. Currently, Nalin works with the Quantitative Strategy team for Hedge funds at Gartmore Investments, Ltd. After the program, he intends to work in the equity and fixed income sector at an investment bank. Nalin loves music, novels, going to movies with friends and learning western dance.

Peik Looi Ong holds both Master’s degree and a Bachelor’s with honors in Civil Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where her research focused on environmental hydraulics and coastal hydrodynamics numerical modeling. Prior to joining the program, she was a Senior Structural Engineer with KBR (a subsidiary of Halliburton) where she spent 4 years designing offshore platforms which require rigorous modeling including stochastic fatigue in a dynamic environment. Peik Looi hopes to use her experience in numerical modeling and acquired finance knowledge to obtain a position as a quantitative researcher and eventually evolve into a trading role. In her free time, she enjoys watching films, writing, and various types of outdoor activities, such as rock climbing, trekking, and backpacking.

Rushali Parikh graduated from L.D. College of Engineering, Ahmedabad, India, with a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communication. She then received an MSEE in Digital Signal Processing from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Before joining the program, she spent a year as a research investigator at the UMich Neural Engineering Lab where she designed a digital system to record, process and transmit wireless neural data acquired from implanted neural probes. She worked briefly at an India brokerage firm where she used software to analyze stocks and generated ‘tips’ for trading. Rushali is interested in the area of structured finance and hopes to learn about other areas of finance that are important to the emerging Indian market. Rushali spends much of her free time painting abstracts, and her work had exhibitions both at UMich and in India. She loves tennis, squash and enjoys reading non-fiction literature.

Sarath Kunda holds a Master of Science in Mathematics and a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, after which he completed a six-month internship at Texas Instruments where he helped design efficient algorithms for TI’s Digital Signal Processor. For the last two years, Sarath has worked for Amdocs Development Ltd, Cyprus. After graduation, he plans to work in structured finance at an investment bank. In his free time, Sarath volunteers for various non-governmental organizations. He enjoys playing foosball and ping pong, reading books, and watching movies.

So-Yeon Kim holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where she graduated magna cum laude. As a research assistance at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and GE Global research center in Niskayuna, NY, she has worked on designing and implementing systems benefiting wideband technology in Advanced Semi-conductor Labs. Kim co-founded BioVeriCom, Inc., which develops and sells fingerprint and facial biometric products. As an undergrad, she received the Rensselaer Medal, International Excellence scholarships, and the Center for Power Electronics Systems Fellowship. After graduation, she would like to work in a risk management team at an investment bank in NYC. She loves spending time with her infant daughter.

Prior to joining the program, Sudhanshu Pardasani was a graduate student in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at UC Irvine where he received the Henry Samueli School of Engineering fellowship. Sudhanshu graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, with a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering. He has interned at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland where he worked on mobile ad hoc networks. He has worked at Siemens Corporate Technology in Munich where his responsibilities included developing bioengineering solutions for power communication networks; currently he works in the equity research department at Cheuvreux, a brokerage subsidiary of Credit Agricole. After completing the program, Sudhanshu would like to continue with the equity research department or apply financial engineering concepts with a hedge fund. He enjoys playing table tennis and badminton, and is an active member of the children’s Childline India Foundation.

William Mirabella holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics with a minor in Philosophy from Stony Brook University. He also holds a Master of Arts in Mathematics from Hunter College, CUNY. For the past 10 years William has been developing UNIX/Windows networking and UNIX kernel software for CA Inc (formerly Computer Associates International Inc). He has experience as a specialist clerk on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and as a clerk and trader on the former New York Futures Exchange. He would like to develop risk and pricing models for large, multi-national financial institutions, preferably based in another country. He’s trying to learn to speak, read, and write Chinese.

Yan He graduated from the University of International Relations, Beijing, China, with a Bachelor of Arts in Law. She then received a Master’s degree in Law from the University of Political Science and Law, Beijing. After graduation, she worked as a Copyright Specialist at the National Copyright Administration of China where she analyzed nationwide copyright data and prepared executive reports. To improve her understanding of the law, she studied at the University of Toledo, Ohio, where she earned her second Master of Law degree (LLM). A licensed NY lawyer, she worked as a paralegal at Kuzmin & Associates. Yan entered the Baruch’s MFE program to explore other career opportunities where she could utilize her skills at data analysis. She plans to use the programming, mathematical, and finance knowledge learned from the program to obtain a position as a financial analyst in an investment bank. In her free time, Yan enjoys cooking and traveling.

Yang Yu graduated with a Senior Prize from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he obtained a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance and subsequently received a Graduate Diploma in Applied Math. During his graduate study, he utilized Matlab and Maple to calculate the order conditions for Runge-Kutta numerical methods under a summer research scholarship by the Math department. Prior to joining the Baruch MFE program, Yang worked as a junior financial analyst for a New Zealand firm designing loan structure and repayment solutions for clients. He also interned as an analyst for Xingye Security, China, where he conducted financial analysis and advised clients on investment issues. Upon completion of the program, Yang plans to work as a quantitative researcher in an investment bank and eventually evolve into a trading role where he can combine his interpersonal skills and business acumen. An avid and competitive badminton player, Yang enjoys playing poker and engaging in other outdoor activities during his free time.

Yanniv Avitan holds a BA in Accounting and Economics from Ruppin Academic Center, Israel. Upon graduation he worked as a Financial Auditor for the Government of Israel’s Ministry of Defense in their New York City office where he audited financial reports and analyzed the Financial Department’s activity. At his current position as a Financial Analyst he forecasts long-term operating and purchasing budgets to facilitate multi-year budget planning; prepares a monthly cash flow and budget allocation reports for Ministry of Defense executivesplans future procurements and loans, performs variance analysis, and reports to senior management. Yanniv plans to work in an investment bank or hedge fund after completion of the program.

Yusheng Hao holds a BS in Physics from Nankai University, China. After graduation, he worked as a software engineer at INVENTEC Electronics Co., Ltd., where he participated in several projects including the E-business Solution System in which he was responsible for designing modules, programming, and database. Prior to joining the program, Yusheng was a PhD student in Physics at the Graduate Center, CUNY. While in graduate school, he worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Physics department of Queens College, CUNY. Yusheng hopes to apply his quantitative and financial training and programming background to obtain a position at a hedge fund or investment bank. He enjoys playing soccer, watching TV, listening to music, and traveling.