Rising seniors help launch Blacksail Fund
In businesses worldwide, teams of dedicated people are hunkered down in boardrooms, cubicles and huddle spaces, working on presentations, pitch decks and proposals that will sway customers to buy their services and solutions. Why this effort? Allocation of resources?
Gregory Sharafinski, left and Pierson Elwell, right. (Photos by Steven Mantilla)
In fiscal year 2020, the federal government alone spent more than $665 billion on contracts with outside businesses and organizations.
In 2024, two junior College of Business finance students, Pierson Elwell and Gregory Sharafinski, sat together on a plane bound for San Francisco and devised a pitch and proposal whose end product would result in experiential learning opportunities and travel experiences for future College of Business students.
Since the fall of 2023, COB student leaders and Arthur Graduate School immersive MBA students have visited New York City twice and San Francisco. All three visits were funded by the generous support of COB alumni and supporters. Elwell and Sharafinski took part in the New York City and San Francisco trips. They and the other COB students shared their experiences with Sanford Bailey ‘64, who funded the New York City trips.
“We’ve been having conversations with a donor, Sanford Bailey, about the importance of travel,” said Paige Hill, COB’s director of outreach. “Pierson joined us one day to talk about a recent trip to New York, thanks to a gift from Mr. Bailey. I pitched an idea to Sanford, and then the next thing we knew, Pierson and Gregory were in a plane formulating that pitch into a proposal.”
Christopher Dyba, vice chancellor for university advancement, said it is not unusual to have ECU students participate in fundraising and stewardship, but with support of COB leadership, Pierson and Gregory have elevated the role students can have in the life of a noteworthy gift.
“It’s very gratifying to have students champion innovative ideas that are worthy of philanthropic investments, especially something that has such a positive and lasting impact on student success,” Dyba said. “Pierson and Gregory went beyond participation and applied their entrepreneurial aptitude to an idea and turned their donor-funded experience from a pitch to a proposal which will create new opportunities for students.”
Blacksail Fund
What came from the cross-country flight was a new gift to the College of Business that will allow students to gain first-hand experience managing a financial portfolio whose proceeds will go to funding future travel funds.
The $1M-plus gift by COB accounting alum Sanford Bailey will be allocated in three ways:
- Establishment of the Blacksail Fund, a financial investment portfolio to be managed by students to elicit returns that will pay for student travel to national and international financial hubs.
- The purchase of a Bloomberg terminal, which, according to Bloomberg Professional Services, will give students access to news, data, insights and trading tools to help with financial decisions.
- Initial funding for future travel opportunities.
“Pierson and I sat next to each other and hammered out an initial guide on how the gift could be used and how it could operate,” said Sharafinski.
When kicking around ideas for the Blacksail Fund, Elwell knew connecting with other individuals would be a key goal.
“Travel is extremely important,” said Elwell. “Getting those connections established and getting students placed in high finance roles. Those are some of the biggest outcomes we can expect from Blacksail.”
Sean Clarke ’18 visited New York several times during his time at ECU and the COB. From those trips, he landed internships in the Big Apple, and today, Clarke is in equity trading for a New York City-based company called PIMCO. This past March, Clarke hosted COB students because he understood the benefits of student travel while in college.
“These trips are really big,” said Clarke. “It opens their (students’) eyes and shows them what’s possible out there. The experience at ECU prepared me for Wall Street,” added Clarke.
Eye-opening experiences are what both Elwell and Sharfinski experienced during their travels.
“I feel like traveling gave me a much broader perspective on what’s out there,” said Elwell. “When Greg and I visited the top floor of Goldman Sachs, it was an eye-opening moment. Standing at the pinnacle of finance and looking out the window made me realize all the opportunities that are out there for the taking.”
“The Blacksail Fund is here to help students if they are willing to do the work,” said Sharafinski. “They’ll reap the benefits later.”
Guiding the Blacksail Fund students is Matthew Slate, a member of the ECU Foundation board of directors and the foundation’s investment committee. He plans to borrow from that experience and apply it to the Blacksail Fund.