Lunch With Jim Allen, CEO of Hilliard Lyons
This past Thursday a group of 10-15 students had the opportunity to enjoy an intimate lunch with Jim Allen, the CEO of Hilliard Lyons. As the CEO of one of the oldest brokerage firms in America, Jim brought fantastic perspective on the financial industry. His perspective on the last 10 - 15 tumultuous years was especially compelling. During his tenure Hilliard Lyons was acquired by PNC and eventually regained its independence several years later as employees purchased the company with the assistance of a private equity firm. During his talk we discussed the impact of economic downturns, as well the impact of the following regulatory changes.
My favorite part of the lunch was Jim’s personal advice for us as students. He offered two pieces of advice. First, be sure to follow your passion. As cliché as it sounds – it really is an important piece of advice to understand. Jim has spent his entire career with Hilliard Lyons and he emphasized that it was his passion for the industry and relationships with clients that has kept him motivated throughout his career. His second piece of advice for us was to take advantage of our time at Ohio State as students and specifically to hear as many different speakers from industry as possible. Mr. Allen emphasized that even if you don’t intend to work in the speaker’s industry, listening to their perspective will let you paint a clearer picture of where you want to steer your career. This was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had at Fisher. How many MBA programs out there offer the chance to have such an intimate lunch with the CEO of a major wealth management firm? Not many – this just another reason why I’m so happy I decided on Fisher.