November 19: The Pamplin Pulse

Congratulations John Asbury

The American Bankers Association has elected John C. Asbury ‘87, president, and CEO of Richmond-based Atlantic Union Bankshares, as it’s organization chair for 2024-2025. Asbury earned his Bachelor of Science in Business, graduating summa cum laude. He is an active contributing member to the Department of Finance’s Advisory Board. 

2nd Annual Undergraduate Commodities Competition

Two teams from Virginia Tech competed against elite teams from universities across the United States in the 2nd annual Undergraduate Commodities Competition hosted by Bayou Capital Group in Houston.  This event was sponsored by Phillips 66, Jefferies, Balyasny Asset Management L.P., bp, Mercuria, TotalEnergies, Citi,  ConocoPhillips, Novum Energy, Musket Corp., Piper Sandler, Morgan Stanley, Kpler, and Databento.  The two teams from VT were comprised of the following students: Shlok Rajeev (FinTech), Daniel Silvestri (Finance and BIT), Sakhi Trivedi (FinTech), Samuel Yousef (Finance), Bowen Zhang (FinTech), Arnav Khurma (CS), Gurkirat Singh (CS, Graduate Student), and Jay Rajurkar (Mech.ENG). https://www.bcguh.org/competition

The team of Bowen Zhang (FinTech), Jay Rajurkar, and Arnav Khurma placed 2nd overall!  Their trade proposal was to go long the NY Harbor Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) crack spread by shorting WTI Crude Oil futures contracts and go long an equivalent amount of NY Harbor ULSD futures contracts. They analyzed and modeled future domestic refinery production cuts in addition to examining international diesel prices and their corresponding effect on US diesel exports. Their trade was a 3-month trade to capitalize on forecasted future refinery maintenance and increased seasonal demand leading us to purchase January 2025 contracts for NYH ULSD and short January 2025 contracts for WTI Crude Oil.

Congratulations to both teams for your fabulous results!   Of note, the other VT Team lost in the preliminary round to the overall winning team from Penn.  A very strong finish for both teams on their first trip to this competition! 

Recap of Homecoming 2024

More than 1500 alumni, friends and family attended the 2024 Homecoming Weekend. 

Over 100 Pamplin alumni joined in the weekend festivities. 

Pamplin took part in the Saturday tailgate on the Holtzman lawn. Alumni were able to learn more about the APEX Center for Entrepreneurs, view renderings of the next phase of the Global Business and Analytics complex and spin the prize wheel for the chance to take home exclusive Pamplin swag. 

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Upcoming Events

Alumni Weekend June 5-8

Registration includes full access to a lineup of campus events, including tours, meals, happy hours, dinner and a party on the Drillfield, and much more. While we're putting the finishing touches on this summer's schedule, we encourage you to check back regularly for updates. This is shaping up to be our biggest celebration yet - don't miss your chance to be part of it! Make your plans early to secure your spot and save.

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Giving Day 2025

Noon to Noon
Feb. 19-20, 2025

Giving Day 2025 is coming fast, scheduled to be held between noon, Feb. 19, 2025, and noon, Feb. 20, 2025. This annual celebration of philanthropy is expected to be bigger and better than any Giving Day that has come before!

The success of Giving Day is dependent on the help from our outstanding Giving Day Ambassadors. Ambassador signups will begin in mid-January when the 2025 Giving Day site goes live. Until then, prospective Ambassadors can text HokieAmbassador (one word) to 51555 to be notified when Ambassador signups are live.

Please stay tuned to the Pamplin Pulse as more Giving Day information becomes available!