About Me
The Basics
Welcome! My name is Phillip Law and I am a senior at California State University, Fullerton majoring in finance. Upon graduation in May 2020, I am seeking opportunities in corporate finance, consulting, valuation, and asset management.
Why Finance?
My story really begins in 2008, with the Great Recession changing my life permanently. This financial crisis made me curious about how finance affected not society. After pursuing a finance degree in college, I have become fascinated with how numbers are used to tell stories, whether analyzing the trends of a company or telling story-telling with portfolio performance.
My Work Experience
I am currently a Portfolio Management and Investment Analyst Intern for Titan Capital Management, where I lead a team of other analysts to manage $1.6 million of our university's endowment portfolio. In addition, I have interned at Stout, a leading valuation firm where I built models value public and private companies. Throughout these internships, I've furthered my passion of story-telling using numbers.
Life Outside Business
Outside of academia and the professional world, I enjoy staying physically active on both the basketball and badminton court. As an avid badminton fan, I volunteer my time to help at tournaments, such as the U.S. Badminton Open - Grand Prix Gold. Aside from personal hobbies, I believe in sticking to my core values of being relationship-focused, living out my purpose, and being genuine.
Diving Into the Working World
Titan Capital Management, Portfolio Management & Investment Analyst Intern:
At Titan Capital Management (TCM), I lead a team of analysts to manage an investment portfolio of approximately $1.6 million. Here, my team and I perform financial due diligence, compile investment recommendations, analyze macroeconomic conditions, and exercise investment decisions. We utilize Bloomberg Terminals and Factset to develop financial models (e.g., FSM, DCF).
I am also responsible for adhering to client guidelines and delivering presentations (e.g. performance updates and investment philosophy) to both our clients and executive board members. Linked below are references of my work:
- Stock Recommendation: HealthEquity Research Report
- To Clients: TCM Fiscal-Year-to-Date Report
- Article: CSUF Embraces Highs, Lows Amid Wild Stock Market
Valuation Intern, Stout: As an intern for Stout, I was responsible for determining the enterprise value of companies with revenues ranging from $500 million to $10 billion. These valuations would be used for goodwill impairment, purchase price allocation or stockholder compensation projects.
The valuation methodologies I used included the Income Approach and Market Approach (discounted cash flow and comparable company analysis). My internship acquainted me with the S&P Capital IQ platform, which I used to screen for comparable companies. Lastly, I helped compile client reports by preparing industry and economic overviews applicable to my subject company.
Operations Intern, Warren Street Wealth Advisors: During my time as an Operations Intern for Warren Street Wealth Advisors, I created and automated 20+ workflows into Salesforce for various workflows. This helped streamline operations for all departments ranging from business development to investment management.
In addition, I engaged in client service projects such as generating attendance and annual review surveys. I also led a research project on Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) valuation mechanics and merger and acquisition (M&A) for potential M&A activity within the firm.
Business Intern, MFG Direct: When I was interning for MFG Direct, I gained accounting experience from working with the Controller to perform cash reconciliations and expense entries (accounts payable and accounts receivable) using QuickBooks. Furthermore, I created weekly inventory variance reports that tracked the company's raw inventory for its factor in Ningbo, China. During my internship, I also assisted with the implementation of a new Materials Resource Planning (MRP) system by reclassifying 1,000+ inventory parts for clarity and consistency.
2020 CFA Los Angeles Regionals: 1st Place
Representing CSUF, my team and I placed first in the 2020 CFA Los Angeles Regional Competition. The competition entailed drafting a recommendation on a stock and delivering a presentation of our analysis. We came out on top against schools such as USC and Pepperdine MBA, and have progressed to the national round.
CFA Los Angeles First Place Report
Associate, Student Managed Investment Fund: As an associate for my university's Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF), I help fundamental analysis on securities and assess macroeconomic conditions in order to help manage a $60,000 portfolio. During my time in SMIF, I also contributed to the team's first place victory in the annual CFA Society of Orange County's Request for Proposal Competition, where we raised $100,000 in capital for the year.
Change Agent, University Innovation Fellows (September 2018 - May 2019): In the fall of 2018, I interviewed and was selected to participate in a program where I received training from Google and the Hasso Plattner School of Design at Stanford.
Throughout this training, I learned additional steps of Design Thinking and had the opportunity to visit Google's headquarters and Stanford's design school to hear how professionals incorporated design thinking into their professional lives.
Related Coursework
- FIN 320: Financial Management I
- FIN 321: Financial Management II
- FIN 335: Financial Statement Analysis
- FIN 340: Introduction to Investments
- FIN 435: Fixed-Income Analysis
- FIN 440: Business Valuation
- FIN 442: Applied Security Analysis
- FIN 443: Portfolio Management & Equity Research
- ECON 315: Intermediate Business Microeconomics
- ISDS 361A: Business Analytics I
- ISDS 361B: Business Analytics II
Credits:
Created with an image by Andrew Neel - "untitled image"