Conn College Grad Pursues Finance, Draws on Local and Global Experience

Emmanuel Williamson graduated from Connecticut College this past May and will now take his talents—and a lifelong interest in finance—to Mesirow Financial as an investment analyst.

Emmanuel can trace his academic and career passion back to a teenage desire to learn more about budgeting and financial literacy. Wanting to take some of the weight off his mother’s shoulders, Emmanuel would offer to go grocery shopping and find different ways to ensure his family got more for less. At that point he realized there was still a lot to learn, but the exercise planted a seed for what would eventually become his major in economics as a Posse Scholar at Connecticut College.

During his junior year, Emmanuel studied abroad in Ghana. He decided to focus his research at Ashesi University on Ghanaian cocoa farmers, connecting the analysis into his own past agriculture experience as a high school volunteer at Chicago Botanic Garden’s Youth Farm.

Emmanuel can trace his academic and career passion back to a teenage desire to learn more about budgeting and financial literacy.

“Ghana produces 60% of the world’s raw cocoa,” he says, pointing to the country’s extraordinary share of the billion-dollar global cocoa production industry. While the industry may thrive on a macro level, Emmanuel learned firsthand how the volatility of prices often makes it difficult for independent cocoa farmers to make ends meet. As a result, he became interested in how equity can be achieved in the marketplace in order to protect vulnerable farmers.

Emmanuel moved back to Chicago this summer to prepare for his position at Mesirow Financial, but he continues to think of ways to make an impact at his alma mater. He already has one long-term goal: to launch Connecticut College’s first Black-run investment fund.

When asked about additional future plans, Emmanuel says he hopes to break into the investment field and connect with as many people as possible.

“Always come in with a goal,” Emmanuel says is his key philosophy. “But increase the goals every year.”