Vineeth Ravi WG26
AI Investment Research Analyst Intern, FullerThaler
It’s fitting that the most recent graduates of the quant finance major would be at the forefront of AI. Vineeth Ravi’s aim as a Jacobs Scholar was to launch a career at the intersection of artificial intelligence and finance. As he prepares to graduate in May, he’ll make that goal a reality.
In his new position at FullerThaler, Ravi plans to improve upon a large language model he built that can sort through the 3,000 or so companies that release quarterly earnings reports more quickly than it would take a human to go through five. He’ll also combine data from sell-side reports with AI commentary to create forecasts about the company — for example, a target stock price. It’s an opportunity that wouldn’t be possible without the skills he learned through classes in valuation and investment management, he says.
Pursuing the quant finance major after working as an AI researcher at J.P. Morgan allowed for a lot of experimentation. “Wharton has been very AI-first across all the coursework I’ve seen,” says Ravi, adding that professor Jules van Binsbergen encouraged students to see ChatGPT as a tool to use to perform their jobs much faster. Ravi’s long-term ambition is to start his own firm and train AI agents to make quant-informed trades the way a human would, which would be “a dream come true.”
Leonardo Cozzubo Gonçalves WG24
Solutions Portfolio Manager, Itaú Asset Management
With degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering and a prior role as a data scientist, Leonardo Cozzubo Gonçalves wasn’t sure what was next in his career when he arrived at Wharton. “I wanted to do something that would have analytics or data science as a requirement or a desired skill that I could use to try a new role in a new industry,” he says. “Then I found out about the quantitative finance MBA major, and I quickly realized that’s what I wanted to do.”
Gonçalves was able to build on the background he already had in models, data science, and analytics and combine it with new techniques. The quant finance major also exposed him to different aspects of finance. Gonçalves landed at Itaú Asset Management, part of the largest privately owned bank in Latin America, as a portfolio manager, overseeing $4 billion in funds and managed accounts.
“My career transition was enabled by this program,” he says. “I wish more people would pursue this career path.”
Yihan Xie WG22
Equity Analyst, T. Rowe Price
As a student in an early cohort of the major, Yihan Xie felt she was part of a special group. “Quant finance naturally attracted people who are interested into a small circle,” she says. Xie arrived at Wharton with an information science background but knew classmates would come from various fields. “The hard skill set is very similar, because for info science, the training is a lot of math and coding,” she says. “It’s a natural foundation for us to pivot into quant.” She found that the overlap with PhD, engineering, and statistics students created a robust mix of perspectives.
Today, a few years after earning her MBA, Xie says Wharton has remained a “center of gravity” grounding the Jacobs Scholars to the program — and to each other. Events such as the Jacobs Levy Equity Management Center’s annual Frontiers in Quantitative Finance Conference help Xie stay connected and informed.
Xie is currently the sole quant MBA at T. Rowe Price’s headquarters in Baltimore, but not for long. Another Jacobs Scholar, Max Kieff G14 W14 GEN26 WG26, will join this year. “The Jacobs Scholars program has done a great job selecting people,” says Xie. “It’s a bridge that opens a lot of opportunities.”
Johnny (Anke) Wang WG23
Vice President/Portfolio Manager, PIMCO
Johnny Wang enjoyed the specialized courses he took as part of the major, from professor Brian Bushee’s Financial Disclosure Analytics to professor Joao Gomes’s Central Banks, Macroeconomic Policy, and Financial Markets. Today, he relies on concepts from his Wharton coursework almost daily.
“I do fixed-income investing, so my course in fixed income was invaluable,” says Wang, who is based in California with investment management firm PIMCO. “A lot of my work is trying to understand accounting concepts such as balance sheet health and company financials, and LTV [loan-to-value], especially in distressed situations.”
Like many Jacobs Scholars, Wang accepted a full-time role at the same company he interned with during the program, thanks to a “robust” on-campus recruiting system. But building connections with those in his cohort, such as with Manraj Bevli WG23, personalized the experience and still resonates, says Wang: “The ability to keep in touch really motivated people.”
Published as “Inspiring Tomorrow’s Leaders” in the Spring/Summer 2026 issue of Wharton Magazine.
