Newswise — Twin brothers and Rowan University (Glassboro, N.J.) alumni Andy and Scott Schwartz, both wealth management advisors from Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, have achieved great success. With that great success, Andy, of North Caldwell, N.J., and Scott, of Morristown, N.J., have been able to help many others also do well personally and professionally.
Now they are doing even more. The duo, 49, have spearheaded a drive to raise $120,000 with their colleagues to outfit their alma mater, Rowan University, with a trading room. Joining the Schwartzes, who are partners in Bleakley, Schwartz, Cooney & Finney, LLC, Fairfield, N.J., in sponsoring the trading room are colleagues Jack D. Cooney Jr. and Reed Finney, of the same office; Eric Olson, The Olson Financial Group, Summit, N.J.; Kevin Hassan, The Hassan Group, Philadelphia; Andrew Braun, The Mid Atlantic Financial Group, Mt. Laurel, N.J.; and the Northwestern Mutual Foundation, based in Milwaukee, which matched the individuals’ gifts.
In the trading room, undergraduate and graduate students in the Rohrer College of Business will test their acumen buying and selling stocks with real money — $100,000 that comes from the William G. Rohrer Charitable Foundation.
The Schwartz brothers, originally from Willingboro in Burlington County, N.J., have a strong history with the school, and they participated on Sept. 26 in the “bell ringing” — the official unveiling — of the Rowan University Trading Room Sponsored by Northwestern Mutual Financial Network.
Before graduating as a marketing major in 1984, Andy served in student government for most of his college career, competed on Rowan’s gymnastics team for three years, was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) fraternity and basically worked a full-time job. Scott, also a marketing major, was a member of TKE and got a feel for the future working on commission for John Wanamaker at the Deptford (N.J.) Mall. Both paid for their own education.
Andy served on the Rowan University Foundation board for several years and already had a history of giving to the University. When the University Advancement Office approached him recently, he ratcheted things up a bit.
“I started to think about getting the firm involved and getting the matching gifts involved,” said Andy, who married a fellow Rowan alum, Jodi Woda, Class of 1981, with whom he has three daughters, Brittany, Michaela and Kalyn.
Scott, father of David and twins Bobby and Rebecca, was onboard from the start.
Andy sees an advantage for Rowan’s business students and also for his firm.
“We thought this would be a wonderful opportunity for the school. It’s great for Rowan to be able to expose their students to this, and it’s a great way for us to possibly cultivate some associates. We see the school as our sweet spot. We’re interested in smart kids who really know how to work,” he said.
Scott is realistic about the value of the trading room for Rowan business students. He doesn’t expect a swarm of them to graduate and hit the stock market floor, but he hopes enough of them will be intrigued by the excitement the trading room offers to explore other avenues in financial services.
“The trading room will provide the students with more of a real-life experience. So much of college is theoretical. This is an opportunity to see the real world, watch the markets real time,” Scott said.
Cooney agreed. “I am supporting this because I feel that if we can bring real-life situations into the classroom, students are better prepared to make decisions about careers in the financial industry,” he said. “They will have greater awareness of the market and of the impact on their future clients.”
“The financial services business is a great opportunity,” Scott added. “But we’re not all sitting in front of Bloomberg trading all day. Most of our students can probably have opportunities like ours — getting involved in the field, planning, building clientele, serving people, organizing assets. Hopefully this will excite them about the financial services sector in general.”
“Being self-employed is really where the security is. In the end I tell my kids you want to work for yourself. Having control over your career is huge,” he added.
“Establishing a trading room was one of the priorities for the Rohrer College of Business,” said Dr. Niranjan Pati, dean. “Through Andy and Scott Schwartz and the Northwestern family our students will be able to explore hands-on opportunities that very well may impact their learning experiences and their futures.”
Northwestern Mutual is a leading American life insurance company and the nation’s largest direct provider of individual life insurance. Numerous leading investment industry publications have ranked Northwestern among the Top 10 independent broker-dealers, as measured by total revenues.
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