Employers
Our MQE Students Make Extraordinary Employees
UCLA’s Master of Quantitative Economics (MQE) program prepares industry-ready professionals with an eye towards leveraging data to offer unique business insights. Our students are highly trained in data analytics, finance, econometrics and machine learning.
Poised for Impact
MQE students are well versed in R, Python, SQL, Excel and numerous financial platforms and tools. Our unique, hands-on curriculum and approach equips graduates with the applied concepts, technical tools, and analytical skills necessary to solve complex business problems facing a variety of organizations.
Grow Your Talent Pipeline
Whether your company is looking for a summer intern, an applied project team, or a full-time hire, we’re eager to help connect you with our talented students.
- Check out our MQE Employer Brochure to learn more about hiring from the UCLA MQE program.
- Request a custom MQE Resume Book to preview our candidates.
- Post your internship and job opportunities with the MQE community.
- Participate in an upcoming MQE career event to meet our talented students.
- Schedule a consultation so we can share more about how our MQE students are uniquely qualified to benefit your organization.
Lora started with us last week - the first Master of Quantitative Economics at UCLA candidate to join Epic Funds. I met Lora last year at UCLA when she was a student in the Career Accelerator Program that I facilitated, and later worked with her in an Applied Project that I coached. Now, she’s an integral part of the Operations team that I lead at work. - Epic Funds
Lora Yovcheva-Clavijo - Private Equity Intern
Lucas has been with us for about 2 months and has shown great coding skills and a solid grasp of the financial markets. With our guidance, he explored advanced reinforcement learning models and made some encouraging progress. Our team is now building on his preliminary work and hopes to further develop it into a strategy that could be used in live trading. Overall, I’ve had a positive experience working with him, and I think it would be a good idea to consider bringing on one or two interns from his school regularly in the future. - Optimas Capital Management
Yi (Lucas) Lu - Quantitative Research Intern
Empower Your Employees
Organizations around the globe have chosen UCLA’s MQE program as a preferred academic partner for graduate education. We invite you to consider ways our program can benefit your employees.
Engage the Brightest Minds to Solve Your Toughest Problems
Through our corporate partnership opportunities, corporate partners are able to collaborate with the MQE program in various ways. MQE students are ready to solve business problems or applied research questions presented by a company. Organizations of all sizes and from all fields are invited to collaborate with us. Learn more.
Join Our Industry Advisory Council
The MQE Industry Advisory Council serves as a bridge between the MQE program and industry. Council members offer advice on industry needs, potential new tracks/concentrations, and job opportunities for graduates and serve as ambassadors providing a critical connection to industry. Learn more.
Meet Our MQE Advisory Council Members
Michael Chao – Council Chair
Chief Financial Officer, Synack
Michael Chao is an experienced Chief Financial Officer for private equity sponsored organizations across multiple industries. Mr. Chao has over 20 years of experience in both public and private companies leading financial management, strategic growth planning and all aspects of organizational financial operations. Mike holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Arik A. Ahitov
Chief Investment Officer, Chapman Family Office
Arik is the founding Chief Investment Officer of the Chapman Family Office, managing the family’s portfolios across all asset classes, including direct public and private equity investments. Prior to Chapman, Arik was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at FPA, an institutional money management firm with over $30 billion in assets under management. During his ten-year tenure at FPA, from 2010 to 2020, he managed portfolios for public and corporate pension funds and endowments. Prior, Arik was a Portfolio Manager at Shamrock Capital Advisors (Disney Family office), where he managed investments for the Disney Family, public pension funds, and endowments. Arik began his career in strategy consulting and investment banking. Arik is a Professor of Practice for the MQE program, teaching stock market and fundamental equity research analysis. He has served on the boards of public and private companies. Currently, he is on the board of Forte Global and is a board observer of Cerebelly. Arik holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University and a MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He resides in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.
John Ailanjian, CFA
Managing Partner, Next Legacy Partners
John is a Managing Partner at Next Legacy Partners. He was previously the General Partner and Head of Investments for Next Play Capital overseeing the investment and diligence processes for both fund and co-investments. He also plays an integral role in the programming and education of Next Play Capital’s Fellowship program. John is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles with a B.A. in Economics. John is also a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program and a Chartered Financial Analyst. John currently serves as a Board Member at the CFA Society of San Francisco.
Dave Botkin
Dave Botkin Consulting, LLC
A former physicist turned data scientist, Dave Botkin built and ran analytics and data engineering teams in startups and Fortune 50 companies until “retiring” in 2018 to focus on Analytics Consulting and Advisory services as Dave Botkin Consulting, LLC. DBC LLC has advised clients in ecommerce, mobile gaming, streaming audio, healthcare, and IoT on driving more value with their data. Dave received his BA and Ph.D. (Physics) degrees from UC Berkeley and his MBA degree from the Haas School of Business.
Gilbert FitzGerald
Data Analytics Executive, Google
Gilbert FitzGerald is an analytics executive at Google. Gilbert holds a BA in Mathematics, Mathematical Physics and Computer Science and a Master’s in Mathematical Sciences from the National University of Ireland and completed PhD coursework (A.B.D.) in Social Research Methodology at UCLA.
Michael Fitzpatrick
Partner & Co-founder, Epic Funds
Michael is partner and co-founder at Epic Funds, a private market asset management company. He started his career as a management consultant at PwC Advisory, then he worked on the operations team at Uber Technologies. Michael graduated from UCLA with a BA in Business Economics.
Jack Kahler
Executive Director, Global Business Services, Ingram Micro
Dickson D. Lee
Director of Finance and Operations, The Initiative
Dickson has worked across media, entertainment and video game industries for over 20 years. He currently oversees finance and studio operations for The Initiative, an Xbox Games Studio backed by Microsoft Corporation, located in Santa Monica, CA. Before Xbox, he was head of studio finance and operations for Sony PlayStation’s Santa Monica Studio, from inception through release of 2018’s Game of the Year – God of War. Prior to video games, he was in studio finance and operations management for over 10 years at Sony Pictures Entertainment. Dickson has a B.A. in Business Economics from UCLA and MBA from USC’s Marshall School of Business.
Bonnie Lemon
Vice President, Creative Production, Disney Television Animation
Bonnie Lemon is Vice President, Creative Production, at Disney Television Animation. She has deep experience leading large production efforts from inception to completion, allocating work among multiple studios around the world, and managing highly creative and technical talent. Bonnie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from UCLA.
Robin Milstead
Director of Human Resources North America, Visiativ
Robin Milstead is a graduate of Texas Tech University with a BA in English Literature and has spent over 15 years partnering with organizations to lead teams in their talent acquisition, talent management, and human resources programs. She has recruited and worked with The Walt Disney Company, Audible and PwC. She is currently the Director of Human Resources North America for Visiativ, a global publicly traded software and consulting company based in Lyon, France supporting ABGi USA and Canada.
Aneri Patel, ’22 MQE
Research Analyst, The Brattle Group
Aneri Patel is a Research Analyst at The Brattle Group in their Antitrust and Competition practice. Aneri holds a Masters of Quantitative Economics, and a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology, Sociology and Economics.
“As a recent graduate from the program, I wanted to continue being an active member in the MQE community and give back in whatever way I can.”
Jonathan Schmitz
Multi-Site Leader, Customer Fulfillment Operations, Amazon
Jonathan Schmitz manages the day-to-day operations of multiple Amazon Customer Fulfillment Centers in the US. Prior to Amazon, he spent 23 years in uniform, as a Naval Officer. His military assignments include commanding a Destroyer, serving in the White House, leading our military-to-military relationship with the State of Israel, and managing the professional development for thousands of Naval Officers. He is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and holds a Master’s Degree in National Security Affairs from the Naval Post Graduate School.
“Since moving from uniform to the private sector, I embrace every opportunity to support talented and purpose driven individuals, especially Veterans, find the best fit for their skill-sets. The current industry landscape is complicated, but with value-added mentorship, the journey can be much less daunting and significantly more rewarding.”
Yael Weinstock-Shemesh
Weinstock Consulting, Public Speaker, Investor
Yael Weinstock-Shemesh is a CPA with over 20 years of experience as a C-level executive in the Banking sector. Through her career, Yael has been committed to helping women unlock their potential and achieve their goals. As a public speaker and strategic consultant Yael supports female professionals in advancing their career. In her capacity as a Real Estate investor and entrepreneur, Yael is focused on helping women build their wealth by investing in Real Estate in the US. In collaboration with HSBC Bank, Yael developed the Networkship@HSBC program, designed to assist women 45 and older in exploring career opportunities in finance.
John Wilmarth
Principal, Technology Risk | KPMG
Meet Our New MQE APAC Advisory Council Members
Josie Zhou (Chair)
Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company (Shanghai)
Josie has over 5 years of consulting experience in Biopharma, biotech/Medtech, serving clients in Asia and North America on ranges of topics including R&D and regulatory strategy, launch, growth strategy, commercial model innovation, analytics enabled solutions, digital partnership and post-merger management. Josie holds a BS in Cell Bio from University of Science and Technology of China and a PhD in Diabetes from UCLA.
Candice Li (Co Chair)
Junior Engagement Manager, McKinsey (Shanghai, Doha)
UCLA Class of 2017, B.A. in Business Economics, 2017 Sharp Fellow
Previous roles: Deutsche Bank (London)
Zi-Xun Ai
Software Development Engineer, Snowflake (Bellevue, WA)
UC Irvine Class of 2017, B.S. in Computer Science and B.A. in Political Science
Previous roles: ByteDance (TikTok) (Shanghai), Amazon Web Services (Seattle, WA)
Felicia Limantoro
Founder, E&W Group & Partner, Ozora VC (Surabaya, Indonesia)
UCLA Class of 2018, B.S. in Mathematics/Economics
Previous roles: M&A at Deloitte (Singapore), Tech Investment at Pontifax AgTech (Los Angeles, CA), Growth at Bird (Los Angeles, CA), CFA Candidate
Joey Tan
Associate Director, UBS Asset Management, Local Operating Office (Shanghai)
UIUC Class of 2016, Master of Science in Accountancy
Previous roles: DBS Securities, Management Office (Shanghai), J.P.Morgan, China Franchise COO Office & Graduate Program (Shanghai)
Charlie Zhang
Account Manager for Google Ads, Google (Beijing and Shanghai, China)
Nanyang Technological University Singapore Class of 2019, B.BA (Accounting and Finance)
Previous roles: Account Manager at Salesforce (Singapore)