Alum of the Month
Evan Spano
March 2011
London Program
August 2009 Intake
What and where did you study before your Mountbatten internship?
I studied International Business Management and Finance at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia
What made you apply for the Mountbatten programme?
As I was coming close to graduating from college I only wanted to work outside of the United States so I spent hours upon hours searching the web and probing professors about opportunities abroad
Describe your sponsor company and your role within it.
I worked for Cantor Fitzgerald LP in their brokerage division as an Operations Control Officer. As my role evolved within the company I helped support both the reconciliations team as well as the Network Management division. Working as a reconciliations clerk introduced me to the nature of due diligence and support reporting that is necessary due to the regulatory environment that financial services endure. My role with the Network Management Division entailed the opening, closing and migration of internal accounts and the cross department communications that were required to facilitate the treasury departments banking and trading accounts.
What was the highlight/most memorable moment of your working experience during this year?
My company was greatly affected by the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Throughout all of its offices in the world Cantor Fitzgerald has charity day on the 9/11 anniversary. It was not only an entertaining celebration with celebrities, famous athletes and political figures but was an impressive display of unity.
What was the social highlight/most memorable moment during this year?
SantaCon Pub Crawl (6 thousand people dressed as Santa making their way from Camden to Trafalgar Square)
Please share a little wisdom/philosophy that you acquired during your internship
One of the most interesting things that I took away from my experience in London was how comfortable one can feel when they are uncomfortable with their surroundings. If you look at the structure of the program, it takes individuals, uproots them and places them into a situation that requires them to adapt to entirely different work and living environments. The best thing about the year abroad with Mountbatten is that you leave it a more complete individual because you are required to adapt to a new lifestyle and environment.
If you could change anything about your internship, what would it be?
I would have liked to work in the consulting industry where I currently work.
What happened after completing the year - what did you do next?
I continued on to complete the MBA program in Bangkok Thailand
Where are you now in your working life and what do you do?
After graduating, I moved back to the US in January and began working in Manhattan as an analyst for a private equity consulting firm dealing in treasury risk management and derivatives.
Do you have any future plans that you would like to realise & what are they (career & social)?
No matter where my career takes me from here, I ultimately want to own and operate my own business. I also want to continue a strong work-life balance with traveling to foreign countries at the core of my activities