Saturday, 23 April
Departure from Liechtenstein and arrival at New York
In different groups the participants travelled across the atlantic ocean. The biggest group arrived two hours later than scheduled because
- when starting in London, the aircraft showed technical problems
- arriving at JFK, there was no allowance for landing
- the group had reserved a strech-limousine, which had to stop because of a damage of the engine
One participant was stopped at the security control because of a collection of swiss knifes in her hand luggage. All group members arrived very happy but tired in the Hotel Ameritania.
Sunday, 24 April
Sightseeing
After breakfast in a nice cafe nearby, served by a friendly Polish woman, we went out in different groups: Broadway, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, harbour, Staten Island, China Town, Thai restaurant Nha Trang, Ground Zero, Brooklyn Bridge.
Monday, 25 April
Stern School of Business
Roy Schmith, Professor of Banking, Finance and Entrepreneurship discussed different issues about the banking and finance industry in America. Development and regulations in the banking business as well as Basel II and the future of Financial Offshore Centers were the main topics.For Lunch students picked up typical American food such as Hot Dog, Sandwiches, etc.
Fitch Ratings
Thomas Harold and Martin Hansen, both experts in rating and Basel II, gave a brief overview of their business. Further Harold and Martin have been interested to keep in touch with our school. After Fitch Rating there has been a huge police emergency at times square. However, no one had to go in jail.
Tuesday, 26 April
Sightseeing-Tour at the UN-Headquarter
We started in the morning with our tour-guides and the TV-Channel ZDF, who were preparing a documentation about the UN. The tour gave us a brief view what the UN stands for. Lunch in the residence of the ambassador of the Permanent Mission of Liechtenstein to the UN. After a great lunch on the 49 th floor with a marvellous view on Manhattan, Mr. Christian Wenaweser gave us insights on his work and his duties with the UN.
Austrian Trade Commission
Mr Bruno Freytag talked about the activities of Austrian companies in the US. He discussed with us the main mistakes of Austrian companies by entering in the US market. He also underlined with several examples the importance of advisory before (Austrian) companies start their business in the US.
Wednesday, 27 April
Airlie Hedge Fund
In the morning we met Steven L. Ezzes from AIRLIE Opportunity Capital Management. AIRLIE is located in Greenwich, Connecticut, but the Swiss Embassy to the UN kindly offered us one of their conference rooms for this interesting meeting with Steven and his colleague. After an introduction into his view of the hedge fund industry, Steven offered us a deep view into their hedge fund concept. AIRLIE is specialized into the analysis of high-yield bonds. The AIRLIE Opportunity Funds strategy profits from their knowledge of how to use inefficiencies in the valuation of high-yield bonds. The portfolio is well diversified and constantly monitored to minimize volatility and maintain credit quality. Many thanks to Steven and his colleague who gave us a very good insight into this special type of hedge funds.
UBS Wealth Management
In the afternoon we met E. Robert Pachter, Senior Vice President – Investments , UBS Financial Services Inc. Robert gave us a very diverting and interesting insight on UBS Private Banking. Wealth Management means ADVICE, SERVICE, and CHOICES. The client and his financial advisor together pass through a consultative process, the results of which are extremely important. Clients reap the benefits of a personalized Asset Allocation strategy. The financial advisor helps the client to tailor an investment plan to pursue all or any one of the three primary components of wealth management: accumulation, preservation, and transfer.We also had the possibility to observe the biggest trading room for municipal bonds in the US. We enjoyed very much Robert’s introduction into the American mode of Private Banking. Many thanks, Robert.
Thursday, 28 April - «The MONSTER DAY»
First of all many thanks to Silvia Frieser of the Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich (RZB) Representative Office New York, she had organized the visits to JP Morgan Chase, Citibank and RZB Finance LLC.
JP Morgan Chase
The first visit in the morning was to the Manhattan branch of JP Morgan Chase at 5th Avenue. The branch manager gave an overview on the different products offered to private and business clients. Interesting to know that the mortgage maturity in the US is much longer than in Liechtenstein, Austria, and Switzerland. The bank very intensively works together with independent asset managers, as a significant number of clients prefer a private asset manager instead of the bank’s own service.
Citibank
The second visit was to a branch of Citibank in Park Avenue. Our guide showed us the different services of the branch: private retail clients, private banking, Japanese financial advisors, insurance and investment advisors, foreign exchange cashier, and deposit boxes. Here, too, we noticed interesting differences to the German speaking countries. The education system in banking is very different to what we know. Most bank employees only had working experience. An apprenticeship does not exist and most of the employees have not had a bachelor degree in business administration or banking. Thus they cannot answer to questions on topics out of their direct working area.
RZB Finance LLC
At noon we visited RZB Finance LLC. Here we had the pleasure to follow six different short presentations. Joyce Gapay started with an introduction into RZB Group worldwide. Then Eric Salat presented the Asset based Financing Group, specialized in secured financing for large and middle-sized companies. Astrid Wilke and Griselda Alvizo gave an overview on the commodity finance and foreign trade finance activities of RZB Finance LLC. The possibilities and limits of the import-Export-Bank have been presented by Tony Johnson and Vincent Herman. Finally, Dan Dobrjanskyi underlined the necessity of risk management for all the different operations of RZB Finance LLC.
NYSE
In the afternoon we enjoyed the unique visit to the NYSE, which generally is no more open to groups since September 11. Thanks to Markus Koch, who organized this visit for us, we have had the possibility of an intensive discussion with Murray M. Teitelbaum, Director of the NYSE. Murray explained how the NYSE works and what the differences are compared to an electronic trading system.
Friday, 29 April - «The BUS DAY»
As our today’s visits are out of town we had rented a bus for this day. Our bus arrived nearly half an hour too late. Amazing, that a country which realized flights to the moon nearly 40 years ago, operates with busses without a navigation system and with bus drivers who even have no map!
Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick
Johnson and Johnson is one of the very big health care and pharmaceutical companies in the world. We visited their headquarter at New Brunswick and met some very interesting officers of the company. First Will Stephens, Vice President, International Government Affairs Corporate Staff, gave us an introduction in the company, its goals and mission. After that John A. Papa and Thomas M. Gorrie, two corporate officers, answered to our questions. It was interesting to learn, that the company shows a balanced relationship between shareholder value and corporate wealth maximization. We have been impressed by their extension of corporate culture and how they pass their corporate culture to acquired firms. Regarding their acquisitions, not the price of the acquired firm is important, but the know-how and potential for new products in the future. In contrast to other representatives of American institutions John, Thomas and Will have been very good informed about what is going on out of the US. J&J works strictly decentralized where they are confronted with their clients, but centralized on the backstage services. Another time we thank Will, John, and Thomas for this interesting meeting.
Robotunits in Dayton
Robotunits is the subsidiary of the Austrian company HERON in Lustenau/ Vorarlberg. Juergen Roth, President of Robotunits Inc, gave us a good introduction into the company and the products. Robotunits offers an entire modular automation system to its clients – from simple workbenches to complex industrial production lines. We learned that it could be very difficult to enter a foreign market even if your products are very good. America is known as the country of chances (without any limits) but as a subsidiary of a good working – but foreign - parent company you cannot get such an easy product as a bank loan. Compared with Germany, Austria and Switzerland, there is no nation-wide professional education system and as a consequence it is extremely difficult in the US to hire qualified workers. Juergen confirmed our impression that the US is a country which very often shows no conscious for quality or sustainability. Juergen shared his personal experiences with us and this gave us a lot of new insights. Thank you very much for this interesting meeting, Juergen
Princeton University
At Nassau Hall we have been expected by our guide, who was a student in politics. He gave us a short introduction and then we had a walk around the campus. Our graduate students now have listed some points which they want to present to our University: they want a library with books filling a line of 70 miles, they also want to steal a canon, they also ask for a chapel on our campus. Last Monday we started the educational journey with a University (Stern School of Business) and we finished our program with a University today. Princeton was the last event.
Saturday, 30 April - «The Departure Day»
Day of departure
The educational journey is at its end. For most of us this is the day of departure.