ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT:
Eric Bruce, CFA

	Alumnus Eric Bruce has competed in more than 20 marathons and Ironman triathlons worldwide.

In 1984, Eric Bruce graduated as a mechanical engineer; today he’s engaged in a different kind of engineering – financial engineering. But his path from one to the other was certainly not a straight shot.

Having received a scholarship from the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), Bruce targeted the nuclear industry as a career choice. “My first job was as a nuclear engineer,” he said, “but it wasn’t quite my cup of tea.” After his stint in the nuclear field, he went to work for a value-added reseller of Autodesk products, and, a few years later, he worked for Microsoft in Charlotte.

By then, however, he had already discovered a strong interest in finance. “I thought my career would either be in management consulting or in the investment management arena,” he said. Accordingly, he picked up his MBA at UNCCharlotte in 1992. During his MBA studies, he learned about the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program at the CFA Institute, based in Charlottesville, Va., and he became a CFA charter holder in 1995.

He entered the field of trading-technology consulting, and moved to Chicago in 2000 because he felt a major city would offer better consulting opportunities. Since then he has carried out multiple consulting engagements for the Chicago Board of Trade, hedge funds, and investment advisors. Harris Investment Management is his current client. An MS financial engineering candidate, he is also considering pursuing a Ph.D. at the Illinois Institute of Technology. A melding of programming, quantitative finance and trading strategy, financial engineering can be difficult to define precisely, but, as Bruce explains it, “Instead of engineering a part, you’re engineering a financial instrument or sophisticated analytical trading strategy.”

Even though he is now working in the financial world, Bruce said the problem-solving and quantitative skills he gained from his engineering education have proved invaluable in his line of work. “I strongly recommend getting an engineering degree,” he said, “whether you continue in engineering or decide to expand your horizons. It provides a very solid foundation for just about anything you want to do.”

Bruce is the president of the Carolina Alumni Club of Chicago, which has well over 400 paid members. Somehow, he has found time to compete in over 20 marathons and seven Ironman triathlons around the world. Even his honeymoon will be active as he and his fiancée plan to hike to Mount Everest’s base camp in Nepal.