“People First” Drives Cycles of Mentorship in Duke Financial Economics Center

Blocks that spell out "Mentor" with lights in background

By the time he was a junior, Brian Zorb ’09 knew he wanted to pursue a career in finance that diverged from the investment banking and sales and trading paths many of his peers were taking. An internship experience at a brokerage firm in his hometown sparked his interest in investment decision-making. “I was much more focused on asset management/investment management jobs and being outside of New York City, and that was pretty unique,” he said.

In the spring semester of 2008, Zorb signed up to be among the first group of students matched with alumni finance professionals in what was to become the Duke Financial Economics Center’s annual Mentor Program. His assigned mentor was John Caccavale ’81, an NYC-based managing director at Barclays Capital with a nearly 30-year career in sales and trading.

Zorb’s lack of interest in sales and trading made him wonder initially how helpful the mentorship would be. However, he was on the Duke in New York Financial Markets & Institutions study away program at the time, and proximity boosted his connection with Caccavale. Zorb said, “I actually got to meet John in person, go to his office, tour the trading floor with him, and do a bunch of things that catalyzed a much more significant relationship with him.”

Despite not wanting to follow Caccavale into a similar career at a large investment bank, Zorb quickly realized the value of his mentor’s openness and generosity in offering his time. “If a mentor is not in the area you want to pursue, it creates this kind of low-pressure safe space to ask the ‘dumb’ questions that you'd be afraid to ask of somebody that's doing exactly what you want to do,” he said.

Aided by serendipitous events, Zorb and Caccavale stayed connected well beyond Zorb’s semester in New York. Caccavale retired from finance and came back to Duke in 2010, founding the Duke Financial Economics Center (DFE) with Duke Economics professor Emma Rasiel. After graduation, Zorb took a three-year analyst position with DUMAC, manager of Duke’s endowment assets, and remained in Durham.

“We evolved from this point where I was the student who didn’t know anything and was desperate to learn from him to us running into each other at football games and it felt like were peers,” Zorb said. “The way he treated me was very much like, ‘Hey, let’s catch up — what’s going on in your life?’”

In early 2020, it was Zorb’s turn to be a Duke mentor. Now based in Tulsa, OK and working as an investment officer for the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF), he received an email from first-year Duke student McKenna Raley. Raley, a Tulsa native with a burgeoning interest in finance, had heard of Zorb through connections back home and found his information on the Duke Alumni Directory. She reached out hoping to initiate a conversation about his experiences in the industry.

When asked what gave her the confidence to contact to Zorb, Raley said, “The classic upperclassmen advice about reaching out to professionals and faculty as soon as you can was ringing in the back of my mind. I also learn best through talking to people, so I could read Wall Street Oasis or whatever career website until the end of time and not really feel like I knew what was going on inside until I had conversations.”

To a question about his response when he first heard from Raley, Zorb commented, “McKenna is phenomenal. One of the things that is most impressive about her is her ability to be brave and assertive in asking things of people, particularly people senior to her in professional settings, and do it in a way that is not burdensome…it’s a superpower that will be very valuable to her and her career.”

Two photos side by side, Left: McKenna Raley standing by Krzyzewskiville sign at night, Right: Brian Zorb kneeling on Coach K Court in Cameron Indoor
Mentoring conversations between Brian Zorb '09 and McKenna Raley '24 have not been restricted to careers and finance: Raley (left) decided to be a line monitor for Duke Basketball games after Brian Zorb (right, as a student) told her about his experience line monitoring.

Raley’s email kicked off a relationship that eventually transformed into her working for Zorb as an intern at GKFF in summer 2021. However, a potential internship opportunity was not the basis for Raley and Zorb staying in touch in the intervening 18 months. Whenever questions popped into her mind, they texted back and forth or spoke on the phone. “We had phone calls that were upwards of two-and-a-half hours,” said Raley. “Often times, he was doing more answering questions than I was asking. In other words, he had opportunities to dismount and didn’t in favor of being there for me and helping me.”

“I’ve always enjoyed teaching, which comes from my own love of learning,” said Zorb when asked why he has invested so much in the mentorship. “The vast majority of the time I’m learning something in the process and strengthening some knowledge or understanding I have, so it doesn’t feel like I am just spending some resource for somebody else’s benefit — it’s also beneficial to me.”

Additionally, Zorb’s experience with Caccavale shaped his approach as a mentor, “John was willing to show up, be himself, be open and giving of his time, and authentically connect,” he said. “It was a really cool model for me to see: it doesn’t matter if someone is 10 or 20 years younger than me — there’s a lot I can learn from them. I can come into it with humility to connect with them and see where it goes.

For Raley, the major takeaway from her internship at GKFF and her mentorship with Brian has been a “people first” mentality that she will seek wherever she takes her career. “Whether it’s my first job straight out of college or the next or the third, I want to land somewhere that is people oriented, relationship oriented, and mentorship oriented,” she remarked.

Like Zorb, Raley’s experience with mentorship has taught her what kind of mentor she wants to be: “I think it’s so easy for the person who is more senior to be intimidating, so the quicker you can make it a peer-to-peer type relationship and allow whoever is seeking your help to be open, that’s the way to be the most helpful.”

“Ultimately, we’re all in this Duke community together,” Raley said. “We graduate, but we’re still in the community out in the world, and the more Duke people that do well, the cooler the Duke community is. It’s a mutually beneficial feedback loop.”

 

Sophomores can sign up for DFE’s Mentor Program in the fall semester. For more information on DFE mentoring and advising opportunities, visit the Eichel Finance Advising Networking page.