Constellation Brands Brings Real World Examples to Financial Management Class

MBA students in the Financial Management II course in the School of Business had the opportunity to delve deeper into class concepts including capital cost, cash management, and cash forecasting through a interactive session with two representatives from Constellation Brands.

Vice President and Assistant Treasurer Mike Reitz and Senior Investor Relations Analyst Adam Russell ’18 took the time to discuss their roles at Constellation Brands and connected concepts the MBA students are learning in class to what they do every day.

Reitz explained how a large part of his role is to oversee global cash management, market risk, and debt and capital markets.

When discussing these parts of his role, MBA students realized that a lot of the terms and concepts they are learning in class relate directly to Reitz’s day to day decision-making.

MBA student Sherry Shao, who is pursuing a concentration in general management, said that Reitz’s talk showcased just how many class concepts are used in decision-making every day.

“It was very interesting to see all the topics that we have learned in class relate so much to Mike’s job,” she explained. “Seeing and hearing these terms used in a real-life context with examples allowed me to better understand the concepts.”

Benjamin Bedosky, who is also in the MBA general management, agreed with Shao.

“The presentation was super helpful in enabling us to apply what we learned throughout the semester to real life scenarios,” Bedosky said. “It was cool to see how the treasury at Constellation monitors their capital structure and has an optimal level that they aim for. It was also helpful to understand how Constellation Brands, a multinational company, manages their foreign currency risk and exposure through derivatives and other hedging strategies.”

Dr. Alex Abakah, assistant professor in the School of Business, who is teaching the Financial Management II course this semester, said that Reitz and Russell did a great job at explaining the real-world application of the textbook concepts to the class.

“Knowing how things are done in the real world is really important, so it's a huge privilege for us to have business professionals like Mike and Adam here to help us understand,” Abakah said.