Week One at Graham Partners
Although I did a good amount of research about Graham Partners before beginning my internship, there were still plenty of unknowns heading into my first day. On Monday June 4th I arrived and met the eight other summer analyst interns. We were then assigned mentors who are current analysts or associates for Graham Partners. My mentor is a second year analyst named Ismael who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.
As an intern you work closely with your mentor on the deals/projects they are staffed on. Ishmael works primarily in the industrial technology sector so in my first week I read CIMs and analyzed deals primarily in that sector. Several ongoing deals are in the mid-later stages of the bidding process. One of these deals involves a management presentation at the company’s headquarters in Minnesota that I will be able to attend and further understand a potential acquisition.
The leadership structure at Graham is clear and defined. On the deal team there are interns who report to analysts, the analysts report to senior associates, and the associates report to the 14 person management team. These different ranks are often defined by age and experience. I enjoy working in a structured environment where rank is clear among the firm.
I am looking forward to a second week that will be filled with work and learning. On top of our mentor’s assigned tasks, interns participate in a private equity-specific accounting course for the first month. Also, in the 3rd week, we will complete a financial modeling course from a University of Chicago professor. Both of these will be great learning opportunities and I look forward to my next week at Graham.
Wow, it sounds as though you’re going to gain lots of great additional training and opportunities through this internship – the accounting and modeling course, the trip to Minnesota – that’s great. You’ve provided a good overview of the (reporting) structure of the organization. Ill be interested to learn about the way in which individuals interact (formally/informally), the ways in which people communicate at the site, etc. As you continue, I encourage you to think about how your site’s context (type of industry or history) affects the way it functions and is led, including whether the site’s context requires the leadership to be more attentive to certain issues. Such insights will be useful in the fall when completing the academic assignments. For the future, if you use acronyms (CIMs) – can you spell them out before using them, so the reader (me) knows what you are talking about.