“With my hectic schedule and limited school involvement, I was not a strong long-term solution to creating a strong base to give the club longevity,” said former President of the Finance Club, Jonathan Libby.

With this realization, Libby and Finance Club adviser and Professor, Dr. Dami Kabiawu decided to pass down Libby’s position to Nate Palmer with Ashton Hubers as a Vice President. Unlike tradition, Palmer and Hubers are both freshmen at The King’s College.

Dr. Kabiawu noticed a flaw in the traditional way of electing presidents, which has been based on seniority. Many clubs find it difficult to continue when they don’t have anyone to fill the empty leadership roles. This trouble comes after the senior has only served one year as president.

“By the time they leave, there’s no one that has been in that role long enough [to fill it],” Dr. Kabiawu said.

By having freshmen lead the club, Dr. Kabiawu anticipates that Palmer and Hubers will lead the club for the next two to three years where they will be training the next set of underclassmen to carry on their new tradition of continuity.

Palmer came into King’s wanting to pursue a business major with a finance minor.

“Business is the most versatile and finance is a great concentration to have especially in the city,” Palmer said.

Palmer joined the Finance Club within his first two weeks at King’s. He quickly became involved in the club by helping reserve rooms, running sign up sheets and sending out emails for the club.

The dedication Palmer has to the club is one of the many reasons that led to Libby’s choice.

Former NFL Player Sean James with the Finance Club || Photo Credit to Nate Palmer

“He has the ability to take the TKC Finance Club to the next level,” Libby said.

The Finance Club has been trying to improve themselves by practicing continuity. In the years that Dr. Kabiawu has been the club’s adviser, she’s noticed that with every new president that’s elected, they’ve changed the focus of the club entirely. The Finance Club has shifted its focus from taking field trips to now learning more about personal finance and managing money through market simulations instead.

Once Libby was elected as president, the club shifted and began to direct its efforts into networking.

Dr. Kabiawu hopes that this new vision for the Finance Club is maintained.

Her solution to this is “documenting the processes in place so that the next generation of finance leaders don’t have to reinvent the wheel every single time.”

To keep up with this standard, the former president along with veteran members, such as Meric Pope, trained underclassmen to make them fit to lead the club and continue the tradition they started. One of the freshmen they trained was Palmer, who understood the importance of continuity. “Nate was the first individual who stepped up to the plate,” Pope said.

Because of the club’s new focus in networking, Palmer was ultimately given the position in November due to his qualifications. Moving to New York City from Philadelphia was not difficult in terms of creating new connections, Palmer believes.

“I have been coming here [New York City] my entire life so the transition wasn’t so hard,” Palmer said.

Growing up in Philadelphia, Palmer has always been fairly close to New York City where his family operates a lot of their business affairs. Palmer’s aunt is an art broker in New York City and his father is a real estate agent. Both of his parents are on a few boards such as The Elgin Foundation (his family’s charity based out of Knoxville), Philadelphia Young Life Chapter, and Langham Partnerships which is based out of Phoenix. His family is affiliated with companies such as Sunoco, The Rudin Group, and Vanguard. With these connections, Palmer has been able to bring in speakers who hold high positions in companies such as Luis Corrales from Capital One, Sean James from Bequest Management, and Joe Gilligan from Deloitte as well as speakers that have started their own businesses to give advice to the club.

“I’ll go to a few networking events throughout the city. I also do some stuff with other institutes and think tanks just so I can meet people, network and try to see who I can bring into the club,” Palmer said.

The Finance Club aims to meet at least three times a semester. Due to the busy lives entrepreneurs often lead, the club doesn’t follow a strict schedule. Instead, meetings are held whenever the speaker is available.

Having been exposed to the realm of business through his father as well as being “fairly decent at math,” Hubers “liked the idea of making money or at the very least, working with money.”

Vice President Hubers is currently studying finance. He was originally given the Vice President role because no one else could fill the empty position. Although Hubers has attended leadership and club meetings, he hasn’t held any big roles yet. However, once school starts again, Hubers wants to take on more responsibilities.

“While my role came about in a more casual sense, I don’t take it lightly so once we do kick into gear, I will be more involved and be Nate’s right hand,” Hubers said.

Fresh Faces Lead the Finance Club