We are pleased share this update from Wesley Gabriel '26 on his recent experience with young investors from around the world at the Young Investors Society's Global Youth Investment Summit from May 30-31 in New York City. Read our previous article on how Wes made the cut for this exclusive, invitation-only international event.

On May 29, previously selected as one of the top 30-40 stock pitch contestants from 1,000 worldwide submissions, Wes attended a Connecting Futures networking event at Bloomberg Headquarters in New York City where he met high school students from across the United States, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Colombia, and the United Kingdom.

The event featured a meet-and-greet and demo on how to use the Bloomberg Terminals to analyze companies -- note that Delbarton students are fortunate to have access to a dozen Bloomberg terminals in the Ryan Crane '95 Business Center, a rare asset offered by only a handful of U.S. high schools.

Next, three industry professionals shared their finance industry experiences, followed by interaction with fifty industry professionals, from analysts to senior portfolio managers from across the country, who rotated among students to provide personalized mentoring. The evening concluded with an insider's tour of Bloomberg HQ.

The next day, the Global Youth Investment Summit began on the Roosevelt Island campus of Cornell Tech University. First, the top hundred teams from around the world heard a presentation on artificial intelligence, then each team presented its stock pitch to judges. Wesley's pitch -- he was a team of one -- was judged by three NYC-based financial professionals. Presentations concluded, next, investment bankers, portfolio managers, investment analysts, and venture capitalists offered lessons and insights into their day-to-day responsibilities. Some lessons even included hands-on activities. "One memorable session was with a venture capitalist who worked at a large venture capital firm based in New York," says Wes. "He guided us through structuring and financing the purchase of a business."

Later that day, the results of the first round were announced, narrowing the field from 100 teams to 24.

On the final day, May 31, the group began with a case study competition where all attendees were divided into teams of 3-5 students and tasked with advising Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in a fictitious merger opportunity. The group was provided with relevant information on three potential acquisitions, then had a mere 30 minutes to devise a plan to present to judges and the student audience. Wes says, "I was partnered with three other students: one from Boston and two from Texas. Our objective was to position AMD to advance its artificial intelligence technology. The three possible companies for acquisition were OpenAI, Equinix, and Intel." Ultimately, his team took the bold move of proposing that AMD not acquire any of the companies and, instead, focus on self-investment. Their bold proposal earned the team third place in the overall competition.

After an informative keynote address from Elizabeth Burton, Managing Director and Client Investment Strategist at Goldman Sachs, Wes reports that the Summit concluded with stock pitches by the top five teams and awards for the top three pitches.

Wes had taken his self-motivated, self-produced Young Investors Society experience as far as it could go, and the Delbarton community salutes him on his outstanding third place team achievement!