The following story originally appeared as an online exclusive for the W&M Alumni Magazine. – Ed.
William & Mary celebrated two significant milestones in career development for students and alumni engagement this fall: the 20th anniversary of From DoG Street to Wall Street and the 25th Annual W&M Wall Street Program.
Both programs offer immersive experiences for students by connecting them with alumni who work in the financial capital of the world and by providing insight into how one gains a foothold on Wall Street.
Each fall, From DoG Street to Wall Street serves as a strong starting point for students, with a two-day conference that brings alumni working in finance back to campus. The Wall Street Program allows students to visit New York City and experience the world of finance firsthand. The Office of Career Development & Professional Engagement highly encourages students to attend From DoG to Wall Street before the Wall Street Program for early exposure.
Since the start of From DoG Street to Wall Street, there have been more than 4,000 participants, including students and alumni. This year, the event hosted its largest number of attendees yet: over 400 students and 70 alumni. Since the Wall Street Program began, more than 500 students have participated, visiting companies involved in investment banking, trading systems and risk management platforms, hedge funds and asset management. Many alumni who participated in either event as students now host students in New York City or return to Williamsburg to speak.
The anniversaries of both programs showcase the value of William & Mary’s alumni network and the effectiveness of William & Mary’s career development programs. The programs are made possible by the Boehly Center for Excellence in Finance and the Howard J. Busbee Finance Academy at W&M’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business and the Office of Career Development & Professional Engagement.
As part of the celebrations, this year’s From DoG Street to Wall Street event Sept. 24-25 featured a keynote speech by Joseph J. Plumeri II ’66, D.P.S. ’11, an industry leader who has held executive roles at First Data Corp., Citigroup, Smith Barney, CitiBank North America and Willis Group Holdings, among many others.
Rather than focus his speech solely on the finance industry, Plumeri talked about the essential qualities that underpin all great leaders. He encouraged the audience to make caring for others the center of their leadership style.
“This notion of leadership not only applies to finance, it applies to anything in the world,” Plumeri told hundreds of finance and business majors crowded into the Glenn Close Theatre. “It’s where people actually make a difference in other people’s lives. My style of leadership is based upon compassion and genuine concern for people.”
Plumeri returns to his alma mater often to speak with students, including annually at the Plumeri Awards, which he established in 2009 to honor and encourage the passion, vision and leadership that William & Mary faculty and athletics leaders bring to their research and teaching.
On the stage where he had once played Bernardo in “West Side Story,” Plumeri captivated the audience with stories of his humble roots in New Jersey, his time at William & Mary as a young entrepreneur running his own radio show and a sandwich business, and his journey to leading the Willis Group, one of England’s oldest insurance companies.
He challenged students to make themselves valuable by developing skills that only they possess. He explained his personal system for testing whether a leader adds value to their company, an idea Plumeri calls the “value gap.”
“You have to ask yourself, am I bringing value to this relationship?” he said. “Because if they could do it themselves, they wouldn’t need me. That’s why the value gap is so important.”
Two weeks later, 20 W&M sophomores, many of whom had attended the From DoG Street to Wall Street event, traveled to New York City to see finance leaders in action. The students, who were selected for the Wall Street Program through a competitive process, began their journey at a reception on Oct. 6 hosted by Mike Sapnar ’88, P ’20 and his team at Stone Ridge Asset Management.
Over the next three days, students met with more than 70 alumni at their offices and had an opportunity to tour the new JPMorgan Chase & Co. headquarters. During visits to 13 firms — EvercoreISI, Barclays, Royal Bank of Canada, BlackRock, EY, JPMorgan, TD Securities, Bank of America, MUFG, UBS Financial Services, Morgan Stanley, Perella Weinberg Partners and Goldman Sachs — alumni at each company designed the programs, including morning meetings, panels, small group networking, tours and case studies.
“Career possibilities become more tangible when students can see them, experience them and talk with someone who once stood where they stand,” said Kathleen Powell, W&M’s chief career officer. “For 25 years, the Wall Street Program has given William & Mary students that opportunity, connecting them with alumni who help turn curiosity into confidence and possibility into a pathway.”
‘What can I do with my finance degree?’
Julie Agnew ’91, Richard C. Kraemer Term Professor of Business and inaugural director of the Boehly Center for Excellence in Finance, was instrumental in launching From DoG Street to Wall Street, along with the late Mary Schilling at the Office of Career Development & Professional Engagement. Rhian Horgan ’99, founder and CEO of the award-winning retirement platform Silvur and a former executive with JPMorgan Asset Management, was also a driving force behind the Wall Street Program and has been a strong supporter of From DoG Street to Wall Street. Agnew said in a 2009 interview that the idea was to show students the different careers they might be able to pursue.
“Students would come to my office and say, ‘What can I do with my finance degree?’” Agnew said. “As an undergraduate, I remember thinking those same thoughts.”
Over the years, the event has expanded from just a handful of alumni to a wide network. Matthew Siano ’96 served as a moderator for the Finance 101 panel in this year’s From DoG Street to Wall Street event and has been a regular participant over the years. He has also been part of the work that goes into sustaining the programs behind the scenes. Siano says their longevity is a testament to the exceptional dedication of the business school alumni.
“Alumni answer the call year in and year out, whether it is supporting DoG to Wall, the Boehly Center or the Wall Street Program,” said Siano, the chief legal officer for Five Bells Settlement Corp. and an adjunct professor at the business school. “That is a rare and precious thing.”
Seeing alumni share their experience and expertise “helps give students the confidence that one day they, too, can come back and be part of inspiring the next generation,” Siano said.
Chris Williams ’06, a founding member of the Busbee Finance Academy, helped launch From DoG Street to Wall Street in 2006 to give students a clearer understanding of careers in finance. Today, he is a partner at private investment firm Motive Partners and chair of the Boehly Center Board of Advisors.
“Coming back this year, I was struck by how much the event has grown — in its reach, its breadth and the opportunities it creates for students,” he said.
At this year’s event, Williams received the Busbee Finance Academy Alumni Award, recognizing his contributions in support of William & Mary students.
“When we were students, faculty, administrators and alumni invested in our futures and opened doors for us. We’re grateful for those opportunities and the people who made them possible,” he said. “We owe it to the William & Mary community — and to ourselves — to do the same for the next generation.”
Up close and personal
Elizabeth Eldredge ’02, M.Ed. ’20, who serves as associate director of public relations and communications at the Raymond A. Mason School of Business, was one of the first 20 students who traveled to New York City for the Wall Street Program. After graduating, she lived in New York City for almost a decade, including four years in business planning and development at L’Oreal.
“There was something powerful about being given access to spaces that could otherwise have felt distant or intimidating,” she said. “We got to see the New York Stock Exchange, meet people working in the industry and experience the city for ourselves. It changed my sense of what was possible. I didn’t just leave thinking Wall Street was an interesting place. I left thinking, ‘Why couldn’t I build a life here?’ A couple of years later, I did.”
Sitara Sundar ’15 is the head of alternative investment strategy at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. As a student, she served on the Busbee Finance Academy board and helped plan From DoG Street to Wall Street. She credits her role in the academy with helping her advance her professional career.
“It made J.P. Morgan feel less ‘far away.’ I got to know some really remarkable folks who worked there, and it inspired me to apply to the summer internship program at the Private Bank,” she said. After 11 years with the firm, she calls that application “one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
Sundar, who shared career insights on the Finance 101 panel in this year’s From DoG Street to Wall Street event, feels passionately about engaging with students as they begin developing their interests in finance. She appreciates the excitement of students who are navigating their early college careers and hopes to turn that excitement into a learning experience.
“Coming back to campus helped me bottle a bit of that up and bring it home with me to New York City, as corny as that sounds,” she said. “Returning as a panelist was a genuine joy.”
Sundar is one of the many examples of William & Mary students recruited by JPMorgan Chase & Co. thanks to alumni involvement. Harold Eylward ’98, a Boehly Center board member who serves as U.S. head of investments and advice at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, is one of the key executives at the company responsible for hiring students from his alma mater.
“Sitara has been a phenomenal hire for us, and somebody I’m proud to have hired,” he said.
Eylward explains that during his time as an undergraduate, JPMorgan Chase was the only company from Wall Street to travel to Williamsburg for recruitment. This created an incentive for him to continue the recruitment process.
“William & Mary is full of smart, well-rounded people and those are the kind of people we want to hire,” he said.
For students such as Hailey Buursink ’28, the two programs help reassure them that alumni are eager to advance students’ professional careers. A finance major with a concentration in accounting, Buursink will be joining JPMorgan Chase as a 2027 summer analyst in the asset management client program.
“Everyone is just going above and beyond,” she said of alumni she met during the Wall Street Program last year. Buursink and her cohort left New York City with the shared belief that their experience would benefit both their academic and professional careers.
Busbee Finance Academy leaders Gavin Dennis ’27 and David Kordziel ’27 were responsible for the alumni outreach for this year’s 20th anniversary of From DoG Street to Wall Street. Dennis, who also traveled to New York for the Wall Street Program, said such experiences have been pivotal in his undergraduate journey.
“I never would have thought I’d get to know so many respected professionals before even entering the work world,” Dennis said. “Now I know the board members of the Boehly Center and people at firms across the industry, and I’m confident I have a network I can leverage and rely on.”
Gabriella Chaurand ’27 and Frazier Johnson, University Marketing