Altiorem welcomes you to the next post within a regular series where we profile the inspiring and generous people who are making Altiorem possible.
We are excited to introduce our intern profile on the amazing Thomas Krieger.
Tell us a bit about yourself?
I am currently a penultimate student in a Bachelor of Economics and Major in Finance at the University of Technology Sydney. Outside of university, I involve myself in a number of jobs such as bartending and sports coaching. I have a massive passion for sport, specifically being a big fan of the LA Clippers in Basketball and Tottenham in Premier League Football.
What attracted you to Altiorem?
Being in the latter half of my studies, I felt as though I was slightly behind the curve in terms of how I wanted to start my career, which bothered me a little. I began reaching out to contacts within my network and after a few insightful discussions, I agreed to a 3-month internship at Altiorem.
My fundamental drive for pursuing a degree in Economics was learning about policy frameworks and the tools required to invoke change for a better quality of life. As Altiorem’s purpose and mission was paired with the advancement of sustainability, I thought this made a good fit.
“Overall, the experience was extremely eye-opening and brought about numerous learning curves”
How have you found the experience? How was it relevant to your studies?
Overall, the experience was extremely eye-opening and brought about numerous learning curves. Moreover, my internship also allowed me to demonstrate the theoretical learnings from my university degree into a real-world environment.
My role included addressing aggressive deadlines, such as in the lead up to the company launch when I was required to produce a number of research covering corporation initiatives relating to sustainable practices. Here I gained insight into identifying key points of an article, selectively extracting them and then tailoring key points to an argument or opinion.
I was also challenged to work collaboratively with other staff over Zoom. This included tasks such as fundraising and sponsorship to propel the business into a steady phase of growth. Through this, I gained a lot of knowledge in how to appeal to a prospective funder in an unsolicited way, construct a business sales pitch and devise a target client list for an offering.
“The skills that I have curated and honed over the progress of the last three months will prove to be invaluable to my early career”
Since the completion of my internship at Altiorem, I have a more informed and educated opinion about how I plan to start my career. The skills that I have curated and honed over the progress of the last three months will prove to be invaluable to my early career, and I have complete confidence in being able to smoothly transfer and adapt them where necessary.
What is the most interesting piece of research you have come across?
The most interesting piece that I wrote about was Diana J. Beal’s ‘Why do we invest ethically?’ on how an individual’s utility is measured and how the traditional finance theory does not consider non-monetary returns and the impact it has on investors.
Learning about the increasing relevance of sustainability to investors and firms is an interesting prospect, as it deters away from older literature and specifically gives less knowledge of how to graph a given investor’s utility function. The unpredictability of the changing economic landscape and financial markets excites me, so naturally, this piece appealed to me in a great way.
What would you say to other people thinking about contributing to Altiorem?
I would recommend Altiorem’s library and the overall initiative to anyone who has a percolating interest around finance. Given the freedom to pick any topic that suits you, you’re able to gain exposure to a range of different areas of environment, social and governance (ESG) issues. Understanding how business processes can integrate ESG to better their model is extremely interesting and great knowledge for anyone to have.
