John Pearce, ’11

Major: Mathematics and Economics
Minor: Management
Concentration: Carl A. Gerstacker Institute for Business and Management and Gerald R. Ford Institute for Leadership in Public Policy and Service
MBA: University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.
Residence: Downers Grove, IL
Career: Portfolio Manager at Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund
Former Career: Director of Quantitative Research at NorthPointe Capital

In a nutshell, what do you do?

I apply quantitative methods to investment portfolio management.

Why do you love what you do?

Investment management is an intellectually challenging field that presents novel and stimulating puzzles to solve every single day. I am able to put the liberal arts to work by connecting lessons from disparate disciplines in making decisions. Finally, and most importantly, my work helps people and organizations achieve their financial goals, whether that be retirement security for the members of the pension fund as I am now or earning returns to support the work of endowments, foundations, and even individuals.

How did Albion help you get there?

Albion helped me to find out what I was good at and explore a field that it was useful in. I would not be where I am today without the internship I found through an Albion alumnus and would not have succeeded in that opportunity without what I had learned in the classroom.

For me, Albion…

…provided me a wonderful start to my life as an adult, facilitating the development of my relationship with my wife and many lifelong friends. It helped me find a direction that allowed me to turn my passions into a career. It taught me how to think, not what to think, and reinforced my love for continuously learning about a wide variety of subjects and stitching them together into a broad and coherent worldview.