Adaryl “Bob” Wakefield’s
Graduate Work
I wrote enough in graduate school to fill the pages of a nice sized book. Instead of letting all that work just sit on my hard drive I thought I’d share it with the world.
Below are various samples of my work in different subjects. The work is shared here to provide potential employers with insight to how I think and as a showcase for my written communication skills. My light hearted tongue in cheek writing style should not be confused with anything more than smoke and mirrors used to distract the reader from the fact that they are reading something dreadfully boring!
All documents were prepared with individual effort (vis-à-vis group work), and oh yeah, I own everything. I better not catch my work in your PhD thesis!
Credit Analysis and
Lending Management
Title: The Lending Decision
Abstract: This is a case study I developed for masters students as part of an independent study project. The subject is the credit worthiness of a small business. My original intention was to develop the work further into something worth publishing but I’ve since been distracted by shiny things…
Global Financial Risk
Management (aka Derivatives)
Title: Credit Default SWAPs
Abstract: This paper is a high level treatment of the CDS and its use as a predictor of default. It was written just as the term “subprime’ was starting to enter the national lexicon, three months before pundits started muttering recession, and, a full year before the market actually crashed.
Title: The Effects of Embedded Options on Bonds
Abstract: Another high level paper this time on (surprise!) the effects of embedded options on bonds. Not gonna lie; options are boring and I was scraping the bottom of the barrel to come up with something “cool” to write about that didn’t involve complex math that could never be explained in 2 pages or less.
Applied Portfolio
Management
Title: Equity Analyst Report on Kansas City Southern Railroad
Abstract: This document was prepared March of 2008. It outlines the reasoning behind a HOLD rating on KC Southern Railroad (ticker: KSU). The analysis includes a SWOT, Porters’ Five Forces, and a valuation based on the company’s fundamental financial data.
Title: KSU Valuation
Abstract: A truncated partially integrated financial model of KSUs 3 main financial statements. This model reflects all historical information and forecast as of March 2008 and HAS NOT been updated since then.
Mergers and Acquisitions
Title: Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Discover
Abstract: An MS PowerPoint presentation on the tumultuous and scandalous Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Discover merger. I’d like to thank Jonathan A. Knee as his book, “The Accidental Investment Banker” (Oxford University Press, 2006), provided the inspiration for this presentation.
My focus in PP presentations is less on flashy slides and more on creating presentations that communication information in a way that COMPLEMENTS the oral presentation instead of being notes for the presenter. If people want something good to look at they can just look at me.
Strategic Information
Systems Planning
Title: Large System Implementation in the Enterprise
Abstract: Saving the best for last. If you read no other paper read this one. I study the challenges, risk, and, suggest possible solutions to implementing a large IS in an enterprise with global impact. The implementation represents a radical departure from previous business processes.
Author’s note: This class was, by a wide margin, the most intellectual of all my graduate classes. The point of the class was to THINK and as such this paper may contain a small number of arcane punctuation errors that only geeky English majors would ever care about.