The Queen’s University Alternative Assets Fund (QUAAF) is giving MBAs and Masters of Finance students real-life work experience by letting them invest hundreds of thousands of dollars – thanks to a bit of help from Queen’s alumni.
The student-directed portfolio management group started in 2011 and has grown from $6,000 to $450,000, through a combination of donations and fund returns. Operating as a ‘fund-of-funds’, QUAAF primarily invests in Canadian domiciled hedge funds. This allows it to gain exposure to the alternative asset space, without taking on some of the risks associated with hedge fund strategies. QUAAF CEO Hamilton Petropoulos, MBA’17, knows there are a lot off successful alumni in the investment world and he is hoping to use them as a resource to help build the student-led organization. Alumnus and QSB Executive in Residence Peter Copestake, Artsci’78, has been a major force in helping the group, while other alumni serve on the advisory board.
QUAAF has already received some major media attention – including articles in the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star – and opened the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2013. But Petropoulos wants more people in the Queen’s community to know about the group. “We do not have that much exposure to alumni outside of our advisory board and board of directors. We want to get our name out there more,” he says. There are currently 30 students doing the same jobs found in professional investing firms – there is a CEO, Chief Investment Officer, Chief Risk Officer, Chief Operating Officer, as well as numerous manager and analysts roles. They are supported by a Board of Directors made up of Queen’s Business School staff members.
“We are trying to create something that is notable for Queen’s. We want people to know what we are doing. It is a great program and it is only getting bigger and better.” The goal is to eventually build up the fund’s assets under management to a level of $3 million. This would allow QUAAF to achieve the necessary diversified asset base, while also providing a greater learning platform for future students. More importantly, the Executive Team envisions that these new funds would allow them to generate a sustainable annual dividend, paid back to Queen’s.
Donations can be made to the QUAAF fund online.
Petropoulos is hoping alumni will support QUAAF because it is not only a great opportunity for students of learning by doing; it is also a program that is unique to Queen’s. “Donors are helping support a program that is founded on providing students with professional training and knowledge. While we are a hedge fund club, it is also about the learning experience,” Petropoulos says. “QUAAF is structured to be a corporation. People are getting experience as an analyst and as an executive even before they go out in the work force.”
