Men's Soccer Summer Spotlight - Matthew Gandier
7/19/2017 9:40:00 AM | Men's Soccer
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Davidson student-athletes do a lot of amazing things over the summer. They travel, they learn, they work, they volunteer, they compete and much more with a focus on striving.
This series features a few men's soccer players, with this week being Matthew Gandier, a rising junior from Hastings, Minnesota.
Tell us about your summer experience abroad…
This summer I spent a month in Dubai working for Ernst Young (EY) where I was part of the M&A (mergers and acquisitions) team. It was an incredible experience because I was the only intern, so I got a lot of one-on-one attention/training. While I was there, I stayed in an Airbnb apartment in the Dubai Marina, which is an artificially built canal city, located along the Arabian Gulf. Within walking distance, I had the beach, the Dubai Marina Mall, and "The Walk", which is a two-story boulevard filled with about 300 shops, restaurants, and cafes along the waterfront. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do everything I wanted because I was working a lot (I would usually work from 9 to around 6:30/7 and then would usually end up doing work at home until 10ish -- with one all-nighter). I was alone for most of the time -- although I made really good friends with Excel and PowerPoint. Luckily, my dad would come visit me on the weekends from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he works, so that's when we did our sightseeing. I somehow talked my dad into going skydiving, which was probably the highlight of the trip. Other than that, we went to the beach, went to the top of the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world), and went to some yummy restaurants.
Go a bit deeper on the internship in terms of your role and how it applies your economic studies, and ideas for career paths.
Since I was only there for four weeks I wasn't really put on an active deal, although they did have me help them out on some current client proposals they were working on and I did take part in a few meetings with clients. The only exposure I had in this finance area was the intro to accounting course I took a year ago, so I came into the internship without much relevant academic knowledge. My mentors understood that so the first few days they walked me through how the business works, how EY is structured, and what role the M&A team plays in the transaction process. They had me study up on a bunch key performance indicators (KPIs) and other financial analytical tools and walked me through the different ways you can value a company using previous deal models and data. The biggest project I worked on was the presentation that I had to do the last week of the internship. They assigned me a company called Almarai, the largest food manufacturer and distributer in the Middle East, including the largest integrated dairy farm in the world (170,000 cows) based in Saudi Arabia, and they had me create a brief sell side proposal of my own which ended up being about 25-30 slides. This took a lot of research - I had to go through corporate annual reports, brokers' notes, and use capital IQ to get a feeling of the company, the market, its competitors, etc. The presentation was a few slides of a company overview, a market overview, a financial analysis section (where I applied the KPIs -- ratios, margins, etc. -- learned earlier in the internship and calculated using the financial statements in Excel), different valuation segments (Comparable company analysis, DCF analysis, IRR analysis, market approach), an outline of company specific, industry, and geopolitical risks, and finally an equity story that outlined why you would want to invest in this company. I had to present it to an EY director and a senior associate who asked challenging questions to make me defend my thought process. As far as career paths go, I'm still pretty split on what I want to do. I either want to follow in my brother's and dad's footsteps and go into the finance industry or I want to go on to grad school after college and get my PhD in economics and hopefully work for the World Bank, IMF, or a similar organization somewhere in Latin America or Spain -- I am also minoring in Hispanic Studies and am somewhat fluent in Spanish and love the culture. This internship confirmed to me that working in another country, especially a place like Dubai, is something that I would love to do.
Spending time in the Middle East is not new to you or your family…
An interesting fact about my family is that we were all born in different countries. My dad is from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, my mom is from Grand Forks, North Dakota, my sister was born in Perth, Australia, my brother in Dubai, UAE, and I was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I lived in Riyadh for 7 years and absolutely loved it. It really helped shape me into the person I am today. Unfortunately, we had to move to the US in 2003 when there was an increasing amount of attacks on westerners by terrorists, which culminated in the car bombing of the western compound next to ours called Al-Hamra. So my brother, sister, my mom, and I immediately moved to Minnesota where my mom's sister lives. My Dad still works in Riyadh and travels back and forth every so often to visit his favorite people. There are definitely some hard times not being able to always see my dad and it was definitely a challenge for my mom to raise three kids somewhat on her own but thank God my mom is an absolute beast and somehow managed to do the job and raise a handful like myself. Love my parents to death.
What made an impact on you this trip in terms of the culture, customs, food, weather, or life there? And what might surprise someone who has never traveled to the region?
Being in Dubai at this specific point in the year was a very interesting experience because it was Ramadan and a lot of people were fasting. The lifestyle was much more subdued than usual because in normal times, there is tons going on in Dubai – almost like a Las Vegas/New York of the Middle East. Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset (almost 14 hours) and all of the restaurants in the mall across the street from my office had curtains around them so people who were fasting didn't have to see or smell food everywhere they went. My mentor Ali (from Iraq) was fasting and one day he took the M&A team to dinner at a Ramadan tent after Iftar (where they break their fast when the sun goes down), which was a cool thing to be a part of. I think being in Dubai during this time would surprise many Americans who haven't traveled internationally, especially those who have only seen the western side of the world just because the customs and way of life are much different. Some Americans may feel uncomfortable by the diversity of people. For example, I was the only American in the office (the rest were French, English, Indian, Iraqi, etc.) Weather-wise, it is obviously extremely hot (100+ degrees) and very humid. In fact, my dad, some of his colleagues, and I went golfing in the middle of the day for some reason and I ended up drinking 18 bottles of water and only had to go to the bathroom twice. I still played great because my mental game is fantastic.
Talk about your soccer path over the past several months and what is ahead…
Unfortunately I missed all of the spring season because I had to get knee surgery in late January. During the entire semester I spent about an hour and a half a day in the training room doing therapy and then would head to practice later that day, so I was still pretty busy and did as much as I could to stay connected with the team, whether it be playing music in the locker room to get people feeling right, making people laugh with my incredible sense of humor, setting up fields, or acting as a coach and giving advice to teammates. I'm still having trouble running or doing any type of squat or lunge. However, I'm in great hands with our athletic trainer and doctor so I came back to campus early to get things checked out and am going to ease into workouts with our strength and conditioning coach until preseason starts in a few weeks.
Davidson student-athletes do a lot of amazing things over the summer. They travel, they learn, they work, they volunteer, they compete and much more with a focus on striving.
This series features a few men's soccer players, with this week being Matthew Gandier, a rising junior from Hastings, Minnesota.
Tell us about your summer experience abroad…
This summer I spent a month in Dubai working for Ernst Young (EY) where I was part of the M&A (mergers and acquisitions) team. It was an incredible experience because I was the only intern, so I got a lot of one-on-one attention/training. While I was there, I stayed in an Airbnb apartment in the Dubai Marina, which is an artificially built canal city, located along the Arabian Gulf. Within walking distance, I had the beach, the Dubai Marina Mall, and "The Walk", which is a two-story boulevard filled with about 300 shops, restaurants, and cafes along the waterfront. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do everything I wanted because I was working a lot (I would usually work from 9 to around 6:30/7 and then would usually end up doing work at home until 10ish -- with one all-nighter). I was alone for most of the time -- although I made really good friends with Excel and PowerPoint. Luckily, my dad would come visit me on the weekends from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he works, so that's when we did our sightseeing. I somehow talked my dad into going skydiving, which was probably the highlight of the trip. Other than that, we went to the beach, went to the top of the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world), and went to some yummy restaurants.
Go a bit deeper on the internship in terms of your role and how it applies your economic studies, and ideas for career paths.
Since I was only there for four weeks I wasn't really put on an active deal, although they did have me help them out on some current client proposals they were working on and I did take part in a few meetings with clients. The only exposure I had in this finance area was the intro to accounting course I took a year ago, so I came into the internship without much relevant academic knowledge. My mentors understood that so the first few days they walked me through how the business works, how EY is structured, and what role the M&A team plays in the transaction process. They had me study up on a bunch key performance indicators (KPIs) and other financial analytical tools and walked me through the different ways you can value a company using previous deal models and data. The biggest project I worked on was the presentation that I had to do the last week of the internship. They assigned me a company called Almarai, the largest food manufacturer and distributer in the Middle East, including the largest integrated dairy farm in the world (170,000 cows) based in Saudi Arabia, and they had me create a brief sell side proposal of my own which ended up being about 25-30 slides. This took a lot of research - I had to go through corporate annual reports, brokers' notes, and use capital IQ to get a feeling of the company, the market, its competitors, etc. The presentation was a few slides of a company overview, a market overview, a financial analysis section (where I applied the KPIs -- ratios, margins, etc. -- learned earlier in the internship and calculated using the financial statements in Excel), different valuation segments (Comparable company analysis, DCF analysis, IRR analysis, market approach), an outline of company specific, industry, and geopolitical risks, and finally an equity story that outlined why you would want to invest in this company. I had to present it to an EY director and a senior associate who asked challenging questions to make me defend my thought process. As far as career paths go, I'm still pretty split on what I want to do. I either want to follow in my brother's and dad's footsteps and go into the finance industry or I want to go on to grad school after college and get my PhD in economics and hopefully work for the World Bank, IMF, or a similar organization somewhere in Latin America or Spain -- I am also minoring in Hispanic Studies and am somewhat fluent in Spanish and love the culture. This internship confirmed to me that working in another country, especially a place like Dubai, is something that I would love to do.
Spending time in the Middle East is not new to you or your family…
An interesting fact about my family is that we were all born in different countries. My dad is from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, my mom is from Grand Forks, North Dakota, my sister was born in Perth, Australia, my brother in Dubai, UAE, and I was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I lived in Riyadh for 7 years and absolutely loved it. It really helped shape me into the person I am today. Unfortunately, we had to move to the US in 2003 when there was an increasing amount of attacks on westerners by terrorists, which culminated in the car bombing of the western compound next to ours called Al-Hamra. So my brother, sister, my mom, and I immediately moved to Minnesota where my mom's sister lives. My Dad still works in Riyadh and travels back and forth every so often to visit his favorite people. There are definitely some hard times not being able to always see my dad and it was definitely a challenge for my mom to raise three kids somewhat on her own but thank God my mom is an absolute beast and somehow managed to do the job and raise a handful like myself. Love my parents to death.
What made an impact on you this trip in terms of the culture, customs, food, weather, or life there? And what might surprise someone who has never traveled to the region?
Being in Dubai at this specific point in the year was a very interesting experience because it was Ramadan and a lot of people were fasting. The lifestyle was much more subdued than usual because in normal times, there is tons going on in Dubai – almost like a Las Vegas/New York of the Middle East. Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset (almost 14 hours) and all of the restaurants in the mall across the street from my office had curtains around them so people who were fasting didn't have to see or smell food everywhere they went. My mentor Ali (from Iraq) was fasting and one day he took the M&A team to dinner at a Ramadan tent after Iftar (where they break their fast when the sun goes down), which was a cool thing to be a part of. I think being in Dubai during this time would surprise many Americans who haven't traveled internationally, especially those who have only seen the western side of the world just because the customs and way of life are much different. Some Americans may feel uncomfortable by the diversity of people. For example, I was the only American in the office (the rest were French, English, Indian, Iraqi, etc.) Weather-wise, it is obviously extremely hot (100+ degrees) and very humid. In fact, my dad, some of his colleagues, and I went golfing in the middle of the day for some reason and I ended up drinking 18 bottles of water and only had to go to the bathroom twice. I still played great because my mental game is fantastic.
Talk about your soccer path over the past several months and what is ahead…
Unfortunately I missed all of the spring season because I had to get knee surgery in late January. During the entire semester I spent about an hour and a half a day in the training room doing therapy and then would head to practice later that day, so I was still pretty busy and did as much as I could to stay connected with the team, whether it be playing music in the locker room to get people feeling right, making people laugh with my incredible sense of humor, setting up fields, or acting as a coach and giving advice to teammates. I'm still having trouble running or doing any type of squat or lunge. However, I'm in great hands with our athletic trainer and doctor so I came back to campus early to get things checked out and am going to ease into workouts with our strength and conditioning coach until preseason starts in a few weeks.
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