ANN ARBOR, MI - "The Mooch" is coming to the University of Michigan to talk investment finance.
Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as the White House director of communications for President Donald Trump in 2017, will provide a keynote address during UM's Engage Undergraduate Investment Conference at 3:10 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 12, on the main stage of the Michigan Theater.
He'll be one of more than a dozen speakers from hedge fund and private equity industries at the three-day conference sponsored by the David Kudla Foundation. The conference concludes with a student stock pitch competition at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 14, inside the Stephen M. Ross School of Business' Robertson Auditorium.
Scaramucci is founder and co-managing partner of global alternative investments firm SkyBridge Capital. Prior to founding SkyBridge in 2005, Scaramucci co-founded investment partnership Oscar Capital Management, which was sold to Neuberger Berman, LLC in 2001. Earlier, he was a vice president in private wealth management at Goldman Sachs & Co.
Scaramucci was White House director of communications for just 11 days in July 2017. In his short time as communications director, Scaramucci grabbed headlines thanks to a vulgar rant about former chief of staff Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon.
Scaramucci plans to document some of those experiences in his new book, "Trump: The Blue-Collar President" on Oct. 23. The book tells the inside story of how Trump "identified the struggle of blue-collar Americans, won the Presidency, and put the country on a path to long-term prosperity."
The conference also features a competitive undergraduate stock competition. Teams from across the country present their stock pitches to a panel of professional investors for a chance to present their pitches in front of the entire conference audience.
Each team of 3-5 members from various colleges and universities will pitch an equity - long or short. Pitches are evaluated on quality of idea, analysis and presentation.
The top teams from the first round will advance to the final round for a chance to present in front of the entire conference, including a panel of executive-level investment professionals and the entire conference audience.
Conference Director Merrick Weingarten, a junior in UM's Ross School of Business, expects 40 colleges and universities to compete in the stock pitch challenge, including UM, Michigan State University, Eastern Michigan University, Wayne State University and Oakland University, in addition to Harvard University, the University of Virginia, University of Notre Dame and University of Florida.
"Students have the opportunity to give a 15-minute stock pitch to a panel of professional judges, who are all succeeding on Wall Street at some of the top firms," Weingarten said. "They receive great feedback on their pitch so they can develop as investors, and compete for a chance to win $5,000 grand prize. They also get access to recruiting opportunities with leading investment management firms."
Additional speakers during the conference include CNBC Senior Economic Reporter Steve Liesman, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans, Ariel Investments CEO John Rogers, Nuveen Asset Management Chief Equity Strategist Robert Doll, TIAA Investments Managing Director Stephanie Link, Mainstay Capital Management Founder David Kudla, Causeway Capital CEO Sarah Ketterer and Morgan Stanley CIO Mike Wilson.
Registration for the conference is $5 for UM students and $15 for non-students, with tickets available online. For more information on the conference, visit its website.