Investing in financial experience

By Kevin Manne

In the Terese Kelly Investment Group, that means presenting investment recommendations and challenging peers with sharp questions and confident rebuttals, knowing every decision affects a real stock portfolio.

Established in 2011, the Terese Kelly Investment Group is a real-money portfolio for students who are passionate about finance and investment management. The group builds future industry leaders through education, strategy and skill development.

Brandon Licursi, a School of Management senior, serves as co-chief investment officer of the group, overseeing its day-to-day operations. In his role, he focuses on maintaining the investment policy statement, balancing learning goals with portfolio growth and leading research and trade decisions.

“This isn’t just another investment club,” says Licursi. “This is a student-run endowment fund, and our objective is to beat our benchmark and provide as much return as we can to the UB Foundation.”

Throughout his time in the group, Licursi has developed skills that go far beyond his classroom learning. He’s built full financial models, conducted exhaustive industry and macro analyses, and learned to turn those numbers into a compelling investment story he can defend under tough Q&A from his peers and the board.

These skills are already paying off and have helped him land multiple internships, including one in equity research at Sterling Investment Council LLC, where he directly applied what he was learning in the Terese Kelly Investment Group.

“I was conducting research, compiling my analysis into an easily understandable report and presenting that report to the investment team to make a decision,” says Licursi. “It reduced the amount of training I needed to get up to speed with what the investment team was looking for, so I was able to quickly provide a lot of value.”

Skill-building opportunities like the Terese Kelly Investment Group are available to School of Management students thanks to the generosity of donors like the group’s namesake, UB alumna Terese Kelly, MLS ’73, BA ’68, who invested in the school to help students achieve their financial dreams. 

Gregg S. Fisher, BS ’92, founder and portfolio manager at Quent Capital, channels his expertise and philanthropy into supporting students by sponsoring several initiatives, including the Fisher Family Fellows. In the program, students dive into equity research, building valuable professional skills and industry relationships.  

The seeds of the F3 program, as it’s come to be known, were planted in December 2024. That’s when a student team began brainstorming, moved quickly to connect with Fisher the following month, and were already recruiting members in April. By May, they were off and running and conducting finance research.

Declan McEntee is a student in the school’s Master of Science in Finance program. He serves as co-chief research officer and helped get the program off the ground — and says it’s been an eye-opening experience.

“I’m somebody who tends to look at a task, break it down, and then do it all myself. I find it really hard to delegate,” he says. “But when you have five researchers you’re working with, you can’t do everything alone. That would be a tough thing to learn as a manager after college. I’m glad I learned it early on.”

The F3 team is tasked with conducting small- and mid-cap equity research, focusing on companies often overlooked by mainstream investors. Rather than relying solely on financial metrics, students evaluate potential investments through qualitative factors such as leadership quality, adaptability, supply chain strength, mergers and acquisitions potential, and consumer behavior.

“We’re finding creative, unique ways to value these companies based on factors like how they improve employee happiness,” says McEntee. “We can measure that based on something like how much coffee they give their employees for free, which may sound silly at first but if you’re trying to retain A-list talent, free benefits like this play into it.”

Once their research is complete, the students share it directly with Quent Capital, acting as advisors for the firm, by providing insights and recommendations, analysis and equity pitches on their target small- and mid-cap companies.

“It’s been transformative for me and for everyone on the team,” says McEntee. “We’ve been working directly with Gregg and a team he assigned to us, and we’ve learned so much from them and all the professionals at Quent.”