Leadership Team

Faculty Advisors

Pedram Nezafat is a Finance lecturer at the Ross School of Business and the faculty advisor of Tozzi trading center. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering and his PhD in Finance from the University of Minnesota. His areas of expertise are empirical and theoretical asset pricing. He has presented at annual meetings of the American Finance Association, the Western Finance Association, and the European Finance Association. His research has been published in the Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Economic Theory, and Journal of Corporate Finance. He teaches both undergraduate and MBA courses at University of Michigan and has been awarded several teaching awards.

Kai Petainen is the manager of Tozzi trading center at the Ross School of Business. Petainen is featured in Matthew Schifrin’s book, “The Warren Buffetts Next Door: The World’s Greatest Investors You’ve Never Heard Of and What You Can Learn From Them”. He’s also a contributing blogger at Forbes. Petainen had articles in Forbes, MoneyShow.com, Welt Am Sonntag, the San Francisco Chronicle, Santa Cruz Sentinel, MSN Money, Financial Post, the Globe and Mail, and many others.


Student Board Members

Shrey is a senior from Mumbai, India. He is currently pursuing a BBA degree with a minor in economics. This past summer he worked at a boutique investment bank in New York as an investment banking summer analyst. He has previously also interned at LineLeap and Phillip Capital. On campus, he serves as the President of the Maize and Blue Endowment Fund and the Managing Director of the Zell Early Stage Fund. He is also the VP of Education for Michigan Interactive Investments. In his free time he likes to watch any and all sports, enjoys the outdoors or reading up on trivia. Please reach out to Shrey at shreyd@umich.edu with any questions you may have about the Maize & Blue Endowment Fund.

Eric Brand is a senior at the University of Michigan studying business with concentrations in finance and management. This past summer, he interned as an Investment Banking Summer Analyst at Evercore in New York City, where he plans to return post-graduation. After his sophomore year, Eric worked as a high-yield credit analyst at MSD Partners, the private investment firm of Michael Dell. Previously, he spent time in private equity and venture capital in New York and Tel Aviv. Outside of the classroom and office, Eric enjoys reading, playing golf, exploring Ann Arbor, and cheering on the Michigan Wolverines. Please reach out to Eric at erbrand@umich.edu with any questions you may have about the Maize & Blue Endowment Fund.