Alumni Spotlight on Lizette Aguilar

Our Alumni feature post this week highlights a 2019 graduate, Lizette Aguilar. Liz grew up in the Western suburbs of Chicago and eventually ended up at DePaul. Liz’s favorite memory at DePaul was being able to present a loan proposal to a mock credit committee at Wintrust Bank through her Banking and Credit Analyst class. During her undergraduate time, Liz had the opportunity to have an internship with Edward Jones Investments where she worked in Wealth Management. She was very grateful for this opportunity because it was a great chance to network, enhance communication skills, and evaluate investment options and potential risks associated. Upon graduation, Liz began her professional career as a participant in the Commercial Banking Training Program at CIBC in Chicago, IL.

When starting out her career, Liz completed ten weeks of credit training at CIBC, which began with the basics of accounting and progressed into credit analysis and financial modeling. Upon completion of formal training, Liz was able to start her rotations as an underwriter. Her first rotation was with the Sponsor Finance Group, a group that focuses on lending to private equity firms and their portfolio companies. Liz is now onto her second rotation with the Loan Workout and Restructuring Group, where she is actively working on distressed credit and analysis. Liz is grateful to have gotten the opportunity to rotate through these two distinct groups as they have given her a well-rounded perspective that will allow her to be a better banker in the future. She also attributes her time at DePaul University, as part of the Banking and Capital Markets Academy, to help develop important skills needed to be a Commercial Banker, which includes communication skills, writing skills, and technical/analytical skills.

For anyone that is studying or pursuing finance, Liz advises the best thing students can do is network. Through networking, you are able to develop new perspectives in finance and learn more about the overall industry. Liz suggests to all finance students, to learn and work as hard as you can in school, but to also get involved and have fun while you can, too.

By Mackenzie Larsen

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