Investment Seminar Pays Dividends

About 30 Upper School students took advantage of a weekly investment seminar held this fall semester and led by Scholar in Residence Derek Hayden P ‘15, ‘18, a career investment professional who walked students through an accelerated investigation of the markets and of market analysis. 

According to Assistant Head of School for Academics Peter Brooks P ‘32, this year’s seminar comes on the heels of last year’s financial literacy and investment workshop series, also led by Hayden, which explored investing and financial well-being with a broader brush. In this year’s offering, students explored the process of valuing a stock or security, learned how to identify potential trends, and engaged in conversations on national/global events and how the stock market fluctuates in response to news of the world. One important takeaway for students was an understanding that investing is an incredibly intricate and exacting process, one that surprises even those who’ve dedicated their entire careers to that process. 

A graduate of Harvard Business School, Hayden has spent his 30-year career working in a variety of sectors within the finance industry. He began his investment career at Bear Stearns & Company before becoming a partner and chief operating officer at Boston-based investment firm Alydar Capital. Since 2015, Hayden has served as CIO of Jam Investment Management. 

The reasoning behind offering a more focused study was to fully prepare students to engage in investing and building a portfolio. It’s never too early, Brooks said, for high school students to understand important concepts that they’ll want to know — and access — as they grow into adults. 

“Not enough people get the opportunity to be exposed to these concepts as well as the more nuanced and complicated processes of valuing stocks and building a portfolio,” Brooks said. 

This investment seminar is part of a larger Thayer curricular initiative featuring business, finance, and entrepreneurship offerings. This initiative will be complemented by the launch of a Business Leadership Masterclass in February of 2025.