SPONSORS

Special thanks to our sponsors. You enable us to build a professional finance experience within our organization.

• Advanta was founded in 1951 by Jack Alter, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania schoolteacher, to provide individual, needs-based loans to fellow teachers.
• Today, Advanta is a highly focused financial services company providing innovative financial solutions to small business owners and business professionals. For more than ten years, it has used these distinctive capabilities to become one of the nation's largest issuers (through Advanta Bank Corp)of business credit cards to small businesses.
  
  Office of the Chairman:
  Dennis Alter serves as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. (Temple University graduate)

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• Who better to trust with your nest egg than the company that took its name from Honest Abe? Lincoln National, which operates as Lincoln Financial Group provides retirement planning and life insurance to individuals and employers in the form of annuities and a variety of life insurance products.
• It sells through such subsidiaries as Lincoln National Life Insurance and Lincoln Life & Annuity Company of New York. The company is also active in the investment management business, offering individual and institutional clients such financial services as pension plans, trusts, and mutual funds through Delaware Investments and other subsidiaries.
• Lincoln National completed a merger/acquisition of Jefferson-Pilot in early 2006. The $7.5 billion deal combined the Lincoln Financial Group with the Jefferson Pilot Financial group (the operating brand for Jefferson-Pilot Corporation) and created a new company, operating as Lincoln Financial Group.
• More Info: Lincoln Financial Distributors markets and sells Lincoln-manufactured variable and fixed annuities, life insurance, and investment management products through financial advisors, financial intermediaries, and sales professionals.
  

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• Merrill Lynch is one of the world's leading wealth management, capital markets and advisory companies, with offices in 40 countries and territories and total client assets of approximately $1.6 trillion. Merrill Lynch offers a broad range of services to private clients, small businesses, and institutions and corporations, organizing its activities into two interrelated business segments - Global Markets & Investment Banking and Global Wealth Management, which is comprised of Global Private Client and Global Investment Management.
  
• Merrill Lynch owns approximately half of BlackRock, one of the world's largest publicly traded investment management companies, with more than $1 trillion in assets under management.
  
• Corporate Snapshot:
  Founded: 1914 (Charles E. Merrill & Co)
  Employees: 60,000
  Total Client Assets: Approx. $1.6 trillion
  Total Stockholder’s Equity: $34.8 billion
  Fortune 500: Ranked No. 30
  Stock Symbol: MER
  Global Markets: 40 countries

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• PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) serves 29 industries and has industry-focused professionals in the fields of assurance, tax, human resources, transactions, performance improvement and crisis management help to resolve complex client and stakeholder issues worldwide.
• Formed in 1998 from a merger between Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand, PwC has a history in client services that dates back to the nineteenth century. Each accounting practice originated in London during the mid-1800s.
  
• Corporate Culture: "Our success in meeting today's business challenges rests on the way we approach our work. We call our approach Connected Thinking. Connected Thinking fosters collaboration and knowledge sharing whether our staff members are at a client site, telecommuting, or working from any of our offices nationwide. We combine our unique perspectives, skills, and diverse backgrounds to create innovative solutions to today's most complex business issues." - PWC
  

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• Prudential Financial wants to make sure its position near the top of the life insurance summit is set in stone.
• Prudential, known for its Rock of Gibraltar logo, is one of the largest US life insurers (along with MetLife) and one of the largest insurers worldwide. The firm is perhaps best known for its individual life insurance, though it also sells group life, long-term care, and disability insurance.
• More Info: Prudential also offers investment products and services, including asset management services, mutual funds, and retirement services. Other lines include a national real estate brokerage franchise and relocation services.

• Vision: The vision of the Financial Management Association International is to be the global leader in developing and disseminating knowledge about financial decision making.
• Mission The mission of FMA International is to serve the global finance community by:
  
• Broadening the common interests between academics and practitioners.
Providing opportunities for professional interaction between and among academics, practitioners and students..

• Promoting the development and understanding of basic and applied research and of sound financial practices enhancing the quality of education in finance.
  

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• Temple University, an urban public research university with an international reach, has been creating knowledge, improving lives, and engaging the community for nearly 125 years.
• Temple’s superb faculty and broad curriculum of 316 academic programs provide superior educational opportunities for talented and motivated students without regard to their status or station in life. That tradition of access and excellence has made Temple’s student body one of the most diverse in the nation.
• Temple’s Main Campus in Philadelphia is the primary site of more than $500 million in construction and renovation. Benefitting from an increasing number of students eager for an urban university experience. Temple has become an increasingly vibrant center of student life.
• Top Business School: Temple University’s Fox School of Business is the largest, most comprehensive business school in the greater Philadelphia region and among the largest in the world, with more than 6,000 students, 145 full-time faculty members and 51,000 alumni. The Fox School is about to embark on a new era, one that builds on previous accomplishments and looks forward to a new era of learning with the construction of Alter Hall, new home for the Fox School of Business and Management.