Dennis Lu, MBA '10

it's been a while hasn't it?

 I must be the world's worst blogger. =)

Well, so A LOT has happened since i last updated. Let's start with the trip to Shanghai.

Shanghai

I went as part of the China Lab class, which is an off-shoot of the famous G-Lab. My partner and I worked with two students from Fudan University for a local entrepreneur. Our company was Shanghai Origin Logistics. The founder Jason had built his firm into the leading customs brokerage company in Shanghai, but he was worried that the customs process was about to get easier, causing him to lose his core advantage. For help, he turned to our China Lab program.

Through the first half of the spring and over spring break and SIP, my team worked on his problem. While on-site we had an amazing time working and being tourists. The program even paid for us to take a weekend jaunt over to Beijing! My favorite parts, of course, was the food. Here are some choice pics.

 

Warren Buffet Trek

Over Patriot's Day weekend, a group of Ivestment Management Club members went on the trip of a lifetime to visit the Oracle of Omaha Warren Buffet. He invites groups of students to visit him in Omaha at various times of the year. I think if he were ever in trouble the city of Omaha would create a TARP fund to rescue him because he is too big to fail in their economy. Our group of 25 joined over 150 students from schools including Columbia, Chicago, Kellogg and others on the trip. We got to visit some of his companies, but of course the best part was meeting Warren in person. I must say, he loves to talk! He answered questions from all the school for three hours in the morning, then invited us to lunch, then took pictures with EVERYONE. He must really enjoy the attention to take pictures for over two hours and still smile through every one. What was really cool though was that we invited him to dinner. Last year, he came to eat with MIT Sloan at his favorite steakhouse Gorat's. We weren't sure if he was going to show up, but sure enough he came about 30 minutes after we got there... and then proceeded to answer our questions for 3 whole hours! Perhaps the funniest part was that he made it a point to leave before the check came... so he made sure we paid for his dinner, which was a petite filet, cherry coke, and vanilla ice cream with lots of chocolate syrup. Are these not the most awesome pictures?!

 

Napa Valley Trek

I then flew straight from Omaha to SFO to join the Napa Valley Trek. We had four days of wonderful sun and wine. We visited wineries such as Trefethen, Dry Creek, J, Schrug, and others. We also discovered how outdated Massachusetts wine laws are... essentailly, you can't ship wine into MA without a lot of hassel. A group of us also scored hard to get reservations at the French Laundry. For those not in the know, the French Laundry is considered on of the top 5 restaurants in the world. While wandering around the restaurant, who should come walking out? Chef Thomas Keller himself! Even though I had a camera in my hands... I just froze... Man! All I could mutter was a 'hi chef' and he said 'hi' back. Oh well. Besides the amazing food, my wonderful fiancee Wendy surprised me by also getting me an autographed cookbook! Unfortunately, I don't think I can make a single thing in there.

 

 

So, that's about it. The semester went by in a flash. I'm right now in Houston at my summer internship at an emissions trading desk at Element Markets. In a few weeks, I'll be in New York at Corbin Capital as a summer research associate. Any new 2011 Sloanies, please drop me a line and we'll get coffee or something. Hope everyone has a great summer.

Hello World!

Wow. In a blink of an eye, half the spring semester is done. In January, I signed up to start blogging for Sloan to share some of our varied experiences. Little did I know how pressed for time I would be between recruiting, class, travel, socializing, and whatnot. I'm very focused on a career in finance as a trader and so many of my posts might talk about what's going on in that effort. As you can imagine, it's a tough year to be seeking a job in the markets, but I think I have some of the best oppotunities as a Sloanie.

Before that, let me share with you what I did over IAP. For those who don't know, MIT gives students January off. They call it the Independent Activities Period. It's a great concept. Students can do all sorts of things like externships (one month internships) with companies all over the world, travel, take special classes, or interview. I spent the first part of my IAP on the MIT Sloan Egypt Trek with about 25 others. As you can probably guess by now, posing as 'MIT' is the thing to do.

I spent most of the rest of IAP interviewing for internships. I don't have anything yet, but I'm confident I will find something soon. A lot of my colleagues have found spots though so it's good to know opportunities are still available to us.

So much has happened this semester, I can't remember them all so here's partial list. I'm taking classes on business law, macroeconomics, corporate finance, options and futures, business in china and india, and quantitative fixed income and fx markets. I'm also taking a special class focused on developing our sales skills, a series so popular a certain other school decided to copy it. Last week, I had the chance to visit the floor of the NYSE. I had lunch with Professor Lo yesterday. He was kind enough to auction lunch for 6 off to my ocean.

I'm really excited tonight as I write this because in about 12 hours I will be boarding a flight for Shanghai. I'm in our China Lab class which sends students to Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou to work with local MBA students and entrepreneurs. We also have a group going to India. My project is with a logistics company looking for a growth strategy. We're working with this great group of students from Fudan University. Other students are working with furniture companies, restaurants, the largest TV network in China, and many other firms. It's great to see that the MIT Sloan brand is so strong internationally.

I'm going to wrap this post up so I can finish packing and getting ready. Check back with me in about two weeks, and I'll share some great photos and stories about Shanghai.