Name: Carlos Henriquez Gutierrez

Year: Senior

Major: Industrial Engineering and Economics

CFS Class: Business Field Studies

Employer: Northwestern Investment Office

This fall I am interning at the Northwestern Investment Office, which consists of ~20 professionals managing a $11B endowment. My favorite part of the internship was the mentorship I got. Going into the internship, I thought the fact that it’s such a small team with such large responsibility would mean that they would not have the time to provide mentorship. However, from the start of my internship I was constantly given substantial training along with opportunities to have an impact in the endowment.

For example, the first project I worked on was an Asset Allocation project which consisted in analyzing the asset classes where the Investment Office invests in and drawing conclusions as to the optimal allocation to each. Although I had little experience in this area, they trusted that I would be diligent enough to carry out my responsibilities in the best way possible and they encouraged me to ask any questions and contribute ideas. This project was of great value to me as it provided an overview of the major asset classes in investments.

Additionally, something very valuable to me was the amount of time I got to spend with the senior investment team. Every morning and every afternoon, we had routine team calls where we would discuss the markets, our investments, as well as pending work and relevant updates. I greatly enjoyed these routine meetings as I got to see how seasoned investors think about their investments and analyze prospects.