Third Annual BIG EAST Investment Summit Scores for All

On March 13, as the BIG EAST Men’s Basketball teams prepared to battle at Madison Square Garden, an elite exchange of investment ideas unfolded at the New York Athletic Club.  Hosted by Indus Capital Partners, LLC and St. John’s University, the third annual BIG EAST Investment Summit brought together power players to collaborate and explore winning investment opportunities.

Leveraging Manhattan’s status as the home of the BIG EAST Conference and its iconic annual men’s basketball tournament, the Summit has rapidly become a premier convening of institutional investors, financial professionals, and leaders, alumni, and students from across the BIG EAST. 

With St. John’s University serving as a cohost, the event underscores the University’s growing presence and thought leadership in business, finance, and global investment education. “The Summit channels the energy and competitive intensity of BIG EAST Tournament week into nuanced insights about markets, investing, sports, and leadership,” described Steven Keating, Chief Investment Officer at St. John’s, who helped coordinate the dynamic gathering and served as the Master of Ceremonies for the daylong event. “It has become the preeminent forum for highlighting the excellence of BIG EAST alumni and fostering camaraderie among the BIG EAST community.”

The Summit featured a world-class roster of sports and investment leaders, including BIG EAST Conference Commissioner Val Ackerman. She tipped off the event with a broad overview of the current state of the BIG EAST Conference and college athletics writ large. 

Commissioner Ackerman applauded event organizers. “We are so happy to see the coming together of our institutional investment officers and key stakeholders – just one of many gatherings built around the BIG EAST Tournament week.”

Retired Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Coach Jay Wright, who guided the Villanova Wildcats to great heights, including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championships in 2016 and 2018 and four appearances in the NCAA Final Four, spoke on leadership.

Torsten Sløk, Ph.D., Partner and Chief Economist at Apollo Global Management, is a top-ranked economist who studied at the University of Copenhagen and Princeton University and frequently appears in the media offering insight on important economic trends. He presented a thoughtful outlook for the public and private markets and explored varying financial and geopolitical scenarios for 2026 and beyond. 

Throughout the day, panel discussions examined private equity, venture capital, and the expanding landscape of sports-related investment opportunities. There were also presentations from hedge fund managers, who shared long and short investment ideas and offered perspectives on the credit markets. The day concluded with stock pitches from BIG EAST students.

James J. Shannon ’87CBA, a founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Indus Capital Partners, LLC, helped organize and underwrite the BIG EAST Investment Summit. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees at St. John’s and will ascend to the role of Board Chair later this spring. He is also the Chair of the Investment Committee and a member of the Investment Committee for the endowment of the Congregation of the Mission of the Vincentian Order. 

Mr. Shannon extended greetings on behalf of Indus Capital Partners, LLC, and celebrated the successive growth of the Summit’s attendance. “Our first year had 70 attendees, our second year had 160, and now we are at 270 people. The continued growth of this remarkable event is a testament to the quality of its participants and the relevance of the conversations it inspires.”

“The Big East Investment Summit keeps getting better,” according to Dean Dimizas, Partner at Cambridge Associates and repeat attendee.  This year’s addition of stock ideas, presented by leading investors and moderated by Mr. Dimizas, introduced an exciting new dimension to the event. The audience heard a wide range of ideas, spanning a Japanese footwear company, AI energy infrastructure, healthcare real estate, and even a small-cap short pitch. 

“What a privilege and pleasure for students from the BIG EAST Conference to be exposed to this opportunity. I came here to learn, as I am a lifelong learner,” observed James P. Riley Jr. ’74CBA, ’75M.B.A., ’03HON, retired Partner and Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, and regular attendee at the annual event. “The best question asked by anyone today came from a St. John’s student. How great is that?”

That question, which focused on opportunities for retail investors, more specifically, sports fans, to invest in their teams and the growth of the sports and the leagues, came from Matteo Sylvestre, a senior Mathematics major from Bayside, NY, who took a midterm earlier in the morning and raced to Manhattan to attend the Summit.  Matteo, a member of Haraya, the Finance Club, and the Student-Managed Investment Fund, will be working at Deutsche Bank upon graduation. He was thrilled to attend the event. “I have many learning opportunities during my St. John’s experience, and this is like a capstone project for me,” he said.

“Attending and presenting at the BIG EAST Investment Summit was the best academic experience I’ve had during my time at St. John’s,” shared Joseph Mascio ’25TCB, a former pitcher on the Red Storm Baseball team and current first-year graduate student from Sewell, NJ, now pursuing an M.B.A. “I’m very grateful to have learned incredible financial knowledge from some of the best in the industry and to have had the privilege of representing our University.”

The Summit concluded with a networking reception, followed by many attendees heading to Madison Square Garden to watch the Men’s Basketball team advance to another BIG EAST Tournament Championship.