UPDATED: June 4, 2026
Originally published in Carroll Capital, the print publication of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. Read the June 2026 issue here.
On May 1, a long, rectangular room on the upper floor of Yawkey Athletics Center was fizzing with ideas. Speakers offered insights on such questions as how new developments on the world stage will affect portfolios and pocketbooks.
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Watch videos from the 2026 conference and read presenter bios on the 2026 Finance Conference website.
The occasion was the 19th annual Boston College Finance Conference, hosted by the Carroll School of Management’s Seidner Department of Finance. Featured presenters included former United States Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, MCAS ’78, H ’02, P ’09, ’12, and Nobel laureate in economics Paul Romer, the Seidner University Professor.
The conference also showcased a community that reassembles each year for conversation and fellowship in their field. Nearly 175 alumni—young, old, and in-between—turned out. So did faculty of the Seidner Department of Finance, ranked 6th nationally in its discipline by U.S. News and World Report. Also present were students, mostly grad-level.
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“For me, it’s about the community,” said Kate Warren ’25, sitting at one of the many round tables inside the Robert J. Murray ’62 and Family Function Room. She was with Lindsay Kinum ’25 and Robert Mullen ’08, MBA/MSF ’15, coworkers at Boston-based Trivalent Investments. “It’s great to meet people in the industry and get their ideas—and see my old professors,” she said.
Burns, who is the Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at Harvard University, spoke of how we are moving from “a world order to a world of disorder” triggered by wars and splintering alliances. Romer, who directs the Carroll School’s Center for the Economics of Ideas, discussed the digital revolution’s impact on knowledge creation. Noted investment advisor Richard Bernstein, the global head of macro investing and custom strategies at Janus Henderson Investors, predicted higher inflation and recommended short-term bonds and equities.
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Other speakers and interlocutors included Carroll School Finance Professor Paul Schmelzing, who presented his longitudinal research documenting how interest rates have fallen steadily through seven centuries; Marc Seidner, MCAS ’88, P ’24, chief investment officer of non-traditional strategies and managing director at PIMCO’s Newport Beach office; Daniel E. Holland III, MCAS ’79, P ’07, ’08, chief operating officer of Shield Capital; and John and Linda Powers Family Dean Andy Boynton ’78, P ’13.
The dean said in closing remarks, “I hope you learned a lot—and met old friends and new friends.”
Visit bc.edu/financeconference for more.
