Benjamin Pickett

Biography

MEng Concentration: Financial Engineering
Anticipated Graduation Date: December 2014
Areas of Interest: Fixed Income Strategies, Derivatives Pricing, and Risk

Ben received his Bachelors Degree from the University of California, Davis in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Economics. While at UCD, Ben worked as a research coordinator, conducting independent research in a Biomedical Engineering laboratory. The College of Engineering awarded Ben the Roy Bainer Scholarship for academic achievement.

At Cornell, Ben is a founding member of the Association of Financial Engineering, and was one of six students representing Cornell at the Rotman International Trading Competition in 2014. He enjoys following business news and economic policy, reading the Wall Street Journal and The Economist. Ben is pursuing a degree in Financial Engineering to leverage his quantitative abilities and develop his understanding of the financial markets.

Last summer, Ben interned as a consultant in the Financial Services Office at Ernst and Young, where he advised large banking clients on critical regulatory issues in preparation for CCAR stress testing. Ben gained significant exposure to Mortgage-Backed Securities pricing and hedging models, as well as an understanding of regulatory requirements surrounding model development and management.

Currently, Ben is working with the Director of Portfolio and Risk Analytics at the Cornell Endowment to improve the fund's performance attribution capabilities. Ben looks forward to his career in finance upon graduating from the Cornell Financial Engineering program in December 2014.

In his free time, Ben enjoys playing bike polo, backpacking, and traveling.