CommerceUVA Fall 2007 (Investors' Report) - McIntire School of ...

McIntire CONVeRSATION
For many years, internships were used mainly as a way for students to gain experience.
Will Powers, CFO of Rolls-Royce North America, and Barbara Taylor (McIntire ’77),
Co-head of Investment Bank Training at JPMorgan and a McIntire School Advisory
Board member, talk about why internships are now a key factor in the hiring process.
Please tell us about your job.
POWeRS: I am the executive Vice President, CFO of Rolls-
Royce North America. Rolls-Royce plc is the world’s leading
producer of engine gas turbines for air, land, and sea. In North
America, we employ about 8,500 people who engineer, manufacture,
and support our products and services.
Th e job of any CFO is multifaceted: I strive for ethical
behavior and controls, the disciplined use of capital, cost management,
the most effi cient
use of technology, and the
development of an educated
and diverse set of employees.
TAYLOR: As Co-head of
Investment Bank Training,
my focus at JPMorgan is
professional and technical
skill development for our experienced
bankers. however,
as a result of my leveraged
fi nance background and 20+
years with the fi rm, I am
also very involved with the
recruiting and development
of our summer interns. Th e
fi rm now uses the intern
program as our main pipeline for full-time hires, with more than
300 U.S.-based undergraduate interns this summer, up 35 percent
over last year
each year, I teach a session on risk analysis as part of intern
orientation training. It’s so great to see the students during their
fi rst week on the job and to hear stories of their early days in
2 • CommerceUVa
Manhattan. As the summer progresses, we connect at social
events, and interns may seek me out as an informal mentor. We’ll
talk through placement opportunities, work-life balance challenges,
or fun places to go outside the city.
How have internships evolved in recent years within your
organization?
TAYLOR: As one of the world’s leading investment banks, JP-
Morgan has deep client relationships and a wide range of product
capabilities, serving close to 8,000 issuers and over 16,400
investor clients in more than 100 countries. JPMorgan takes
pride in creating a meaningful experience for all of our interns,
including work assignments where they can make a diff erence.
We also provide training and enrichment opportunities, access to
senior management, and great networking events. Vault, a leading
Web resource on career planning, listed JPMorgan’s program
among its top 10 internships in its 2007 survey of more than 750
corporate programs.
Because we start identifying and building relationships with
top students early in the school year, we’re assured of getting the
best possible class of interns. Given the robust summer experience,
our undergraduate intern off er accept rate has been close to
90 percent.
POWeRS: Th e competition for human capital in the last fi ve
years has become intense, especially for talent in accounting,
fi nance, economics, and international business. Our business
is global, capital-intensive, and relationship-driven. In plain
english, we must compete with General electric and United
Technologies. At the same time, we have to provide customers—
for example, Airbus Industries, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Gulfstream,
Bombardier, and the various parts of the U.S. Depart-