Behrend Talks: A Penn State Podcast
Join Dr. Ralph Ford, Chancellor of Penn State Behrend, and guests for conversations about interesting things happening in the Erie community.
Behrend Talks: A Penn State Podcast
Investing with Intent, with Vincent Intrieri
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Dr. Ralph Ford, chancellor of Penn State Behrend, talks with Vincent Intrieri, founder and CEO of VDA Capital Management and an Alumni Fellow, about the Intrieri Family Student-Managed Fund. Originally recorded on November 7, 2024.
Entrepreneurship and Mentorship in Business
Ralph FordI am Dr Ralph Ford , chancellor of Penn State Behrend , and you are listening to Behrend Talks . My guest today is a very special friend , mr Vincent Intrieri , the founder and CEO of VDA Capital Management , and he and his wife Joanne are the creators of something very important here at Penn State Behrend , known as the . Intrieri Student Managed Fund and we're going to talk a whole lot about that . He's also a graduate , 1984 graduate of Penn State , Behrend in accounting . Welcome to the show , Vince .
Vincent IntrieriThanks , Ralph . I appreciate being here and hopefully we can have a great discussion .
Ralph FordWe're going to have a great conversation . I love to run through people's bios . You've really accomplished , you've done so much . So , if you don't mind , I'm going to take a few moments to run through your bio and hopefully it embarrasses you a little bit i .
Ralph FordYour fund was created in 2012 . It's managed by students in our Black School of Business and , importantly , they invest real dollars . It's not mock , it's not funny money which raises the stakes . The fund started with a $100,000 gift , again from you and your wife , Joanne . It's currently valued at this is amazing 1.4 million dollars . You founded VDA Capital Management , a private investment firm , in 2017 , but before then , you worked for many years with Carl Icahn the infamous Carl Icahn legendary investor , known for his work with TWA , marshall Fields , time Warner and I know you still work with him as we speak and he also was an investor in Donald Trump's casinos in New Jersey as well . Yes , we were distressed Distressed . You're an expert in distressed assets .
Vincent IntrieriYes , that's kind of what my original forte into the investment world was distressed debt .
Ralph FordWell , you serve on the boards of a number of companies as well Transocean Hertz , global Holdings and Navistar , to name a few and you also still serve on our board here for the Black School of Business , and you're a very active member of that board , for which we greatly appreciate . And today is November 7th 2024 , just to mark the date , let's start with your trip here to Behrend . And how did you end up at Penn State Behrend ? You were a returning adult student , I believe .
Vincent IntrieriYes , yes , interesting little journey . And in addition to the boards I'm on , ralph I just was named chairman of the board of Sandridge Energy , probably about three , four weeks ago . Congratulations , yeah thanks .
Ralph FordWhat do they do in the energy space ?
Vincent IntrieriDrill in Oklahoma , the headquarter in Oklahoma . They have properties in Oklahoma and Texas and hopefully under the new administration with less controls and other things , they'll do very well , I'm sure .
Ralph Fordexpanding is the US is people don't know we're an energy exporter now and we have been for quite some time , actually like a decade .
Vincent IntrieriSo the interesting story , and I'm going to talk about this a little tonight . For some of the students that we're going to talk to tonight , I was always the smartest kid in school , in the class , but I don't know what it was . I must have gotten bored because class was slow or what have you . And so I was very much of an underachiever in my younger days of academia and high school . And you know , I went to a Catholic school for a while . You know the nuns would always be slapping me with a you know a ruler saying you know , come on , vince , you're the smartest kid in the class , you got the highest IQ , but you can't perform . And so after high school I kind of took a hiatus , was not sure what I wanted to do , and I started working at General Electric Company here in Erie in the factory .
Vincent IntrieriI was a machinist . I went to school to learn machining . I did that for a little while . I drove a Jitney in the stock room . I did that for a while .
Vincent IntrieriAnd I remember the one thing I always try to impress upon people is having a mentor in your life and in your business , career , et cetera , is so important and I've been so lucky my entire life to have good mentors all along the road , even at GE , in you know a factory that I was working . You know my foreman guy named Lee Couch who , god rest his soul is no longer with us . You know we went out for a beer one night and and he's telling me , you know , vince , you're smart , you're a leader , you get stuff done , you're hardworking , yada , yada , yada . And at that point I kind of he kind of said to me , what are you doing in a factory ? And I went home that night and thought about it .
Vincent IntrieriI said to myself , what the hell am I doing in a factory ? And that led to the road . So they said , hey , I'm going to go into school , go to pet state baron . So you know , I looked at gannon , I looked at baron and I , you know , I like baron . And so I came up . Plus , it was a lot cheaper than gannon at the time . I don't know what , what it is now , but it was still lot cheaper than Gannon at the time .
Ralph FordI don't know what it is now , but it was Still . Yeah , there's a difference .
Vincent IntrieriPrivates are generally quite a bit higher , and that started my road to the accounting field at Behrend .
Ralph FordSo that's how it started and I mean so . Our listeners know you and I have known each other for probably 15 years . We had a nice dinner last night , actually , you told us the story . So you're this returning adult student and I think you're working at the same time while you're going to school . Yes , you were working and you found sometimes the other students were messing around in class .
Vincent IntrieriYeah , I was telling you last night that when I went back to school as more of an adult student I think I was probably 22 , 23 years old I started in , I think , 1979 , and I graduated as a part-time student at night after work , and then I matriculated to full-time student and I think in my last two or three semesters I must have took 20 . And I think in my last two or three semesters I must have took 20 . I had to get special approval from whoever the dean was at the time Lilly , I think . Yeah , it would have been John Lilley . Early on I had to get special approval to take 25 or more credits because I was , you know , I wanted to finish as quickly as possible . I wouldn't let you do that now .
Ralph FordYou wouldn't Maybe if you were exceptional .
Vincent IntrieriI was exceptional , you were exceptional . But last two semesters were pretty tough and you know I was taking a lot of credits so that I could get done and ultimately graduated in 84 . So even though I was going part-time for probably the first two years , I finished almost on time , starting in 79 . I think maybe a half a year late or something .
Ralph FordWhy accounting ? Why did you pick accounting ?
Vincent IntrieriIt's a good question . I saw that question and I thought about it . Listen , I was always good in math , and math has little did I know at the time . Math has nothing to do with accounting , but it doesn't hurt to be smart in math and be in accounting . I thought it was a practical kind of major that I'd be able to make money in , and so that's why I chose accounting .
Ralph FordIt's one of those things where it's always in demand .
Vincent IntrieriI always figured it would be in demand . You had a variety of kind of venues you could go to , tax audit consulting , and so you know it was . I thought it was a good major to take and I still believe , for a variety of reasons , that accounting is a absolutely great major for kids because there's so many jumping off points that you can go to after you get your degree in accounting .
Ralph FordYeah , so many become CFOs and we'll talk about your path and capital management , but you don't see it being overtaken by AI or anything like this , where AI can do basic accounting .
Vincent IntrieriI mean , yeah , ai might be able to do some basic accounting . I don't think it's going to overtake the accounting industry . There are so many things that have to be , judgments that have to be made , that personally I wouldn't rely on a machine that is maybe biased or not as to what resolution should be .
Ralph FordI think it can only be used as a tool , probably for them to use . Yes , no question about it . So let's talk about the early part of your career . You worked at Price Waterhouse and Arthur Anderson .
Vincent IntrieriYeah , I actually started in Erie at a place called Root , spitz , s , smiley , I think it's an accounting firm that's still here . I was down at 10th and State Street somewhere around that area From Root spitz . I was there actually working at Rootspitznos in my junior and senior year as a part-timer , so that was my kind of internship . And then I got hired full time and I wanted to continue to grow and I went to .
Career Progression and Industry Connections
Vincent IntrieriAfter maybe about a year , year and a half in Erie , I got a position at Cooper's and Lbrand in Pittsburgh . So I went there . I was in the audit department Again .
Vincent IntrieriI was an older staff accountant at Cooper's Kids , coming out of school at 22 , I was 26 or whatever I was at the time . I took things a little more seriously . I had grown up , so to speak . So I went to Cooper's Aibrand . I transferred with Cooper's out to Phoenix , arizona . My brother Gene , talked me into moving out there . He said oh , it's so nice out here , it's just dry heat . Little did I know when I went out there . I said , gene , after I'd been there a little while I said you know , when you go into a sauna , I think the sauna is about 110 degrees , and that's supposedly a dry heat too . But that's you know . In Phoenix you get up to 117 .
Ralph FordI lived in Arizona for five years . I told people that dry heat stuff only works to maybe 105 . Yeah right .
Vincent IntrieriExactly so . Then again I developed great mentors at Coopers and Libran , a guy named Dave Williams , Katie Roll . They were instrumental in helping me grow there . Then Dave Williams left Coopers and went to a firm in Dallas , texas Pricewaterhouse on the consulting side . So at this time I was still on the audit side and Dave called me , you know , six months later , after he had left . He said Vince , what are you doing ? So what do you ? What do you think I'm doing ? I'm working . He said , you know , I got a possibility of a position here in Dallas . Would you be interested ? I said , dave , I don't know if I'd be interested or not , but I certainly won't say no right off the cuff , let's explore it . So we explored it and shortly thereafter I moved to Dallas , texas , in what they called the bankruptcy and reorganization group , and so that was kind of the start of my consulting side . So I was with Pricewaterhouse in Dallas . They moved me to , you know , and I continued to move up in the organization .
Vincent IntrieriIt's funny about these organizations that we'll talk about a little later , about how they don't recognize talent and how they a lot of these firms have a time and distance kind of requirement You've got to be there so many years to get to this level , so many years and I was not as patient as they wanted me to be and so I went up to Chicago . I was kind of a senior leader in the Chicago PW group and in Dallas at PW I met a fellow named Don Thomas who was a senior partner at Pricewaterhouse in the bankruptcy and reorganization group and he and I developed a very good rapport and he went over to Arthur Anderson and several years later recruited me to Arthur Anderson as a partner . So I joined Arthur Anderson as a partner . I was with them in Chicago , which is their headquarters , arthur Anderson , probably about three years and being in one of these big firms , it just got to be that I didn't want the administrative headache .
Vincent IntrieriI'm a doer . A lot of these firms , as you move up in the organization gets to be 70% of your time is spent dealing with the bureaucracy rather than doing what you kind of like . And at that point I was working for great clients in the bankruptcy field and developed a very good relationship with some guys from an outfit called Elliott Associates , which is a very big hedge fund out of New York I think they're probably up over $25 billion now and Chuck and Paul Singer the kind of the principal Paul Singer was the principal of Elliott developed a good relationship and they made me an offer to come and join them as a portfolio manager at Elliott Associates and I took that opportunity and tonight I'll expand upon you know how that all kind of came to be and the challenges and so forth with that .
Ralph FordAnd just for reference for our listeners , you're speaking on campus tonight . You're meeting with students while you're here today . It's going to be a lot of interactions . I didn't mean to interrupt you .
Vincent IntrieriYeah , no it's been great . I've been to two classes this morning , I think Finance 451 and Finance 330 or something . Yeah , finance 330 . Very interesting classes and maybe we'll talk more about that later , absolutely .
Ralph FordSo how did you ultimately meet Somehow ?
Vincent Intrieriyou got connected with Carl Icahn , yeah , so when I was at Pricewaterhouse can't recall exactly what year we represented the creditors committee of TWA and at the time TWA was owned 80% was owned by Carl Icahn and my clients had bonds and TWA went into Chapter 11 . We represented the official committee and that's where I got to know Carl . I was an adversary to him at first . I see Another interesting tidbit Not an easy place to be ,
Navigating Financial Markets With Experience
Vincent Intrierino , no . Another interesting tidbit to this story is that I met my wife at TWA . She was a manager of labor relations dealing with pilots , and that's probably one of the only reasons why she can put up with me .
Ralph FordShe dealt with tough people in the past . Well , I know Joanne well . You two get along well together . Yes , we do . But you certainly have spirited conversations . Yes , we do .
Vincent IntrieriAnd so Carl and I hit it off . He Didn't necessarily like me at first but I think respected me and over time when I got to Elliott I was doing Distressed at Elliott , carl always was doing Distressed and a variety of other investment types and we were working on a company called Marvel Entertainment together . He had an investment with his firm and he'd get on conference calls . We at Elliott had an investment and I would be on the conference calls and we developed a very good rapport , found that we could work together developing strategy and other things . And at some point I think I was with Elliot , maybe four or five years At some point Carl came to me and said Vince , my distressed guy is leaving . Do you want to come join me ? And you know , we talked and ultimately the opportunity arose that I could come join him .
Ralph FordAnd you stayed . You worked with him . For how many ?
Vincent Intrieriyears , approximately 20 years . I think it was 18 and a half , 19 years , 20 years .
Ralph FordI rounded to 20 . So can you explain to listeners , you know , because it's important , but not everyone really understands the importance of people who specialize in distressed assets and what you do and what you bring to the larger world in economy .
Vincent IntrieriYeah Well , back then , distressed investing , I think , was a lot different than it is now . It was a little more of the Wild West , whereas today things have tightened up so that it's not as free-for-all type of situation . But you go out , you analyze a company that is in trouble , whether they're in Chapter 11 or prior to Chapter 11 . You start buying up . If you like the company and you think there's opportunity to create value in some way , you buy up the bonds and you take it from there .
Vincent IntrieriAnd sometimes it's a kind of a buy to own strategy , sometimes it's a buy to make money strategy . And those are two different strategies and the way you do those strategies is different . The one buy to own you kind of got to get a really big position so that you can control the end event , whereas the latter , which is just an investment , you kind of buy and you play in the sandbox well , with a bunch of other creditors to try and create the value and get out at a substantial profit . So they're very nuanced in the differences , but it's an interesting business .
Ralph FordAnd you during this time , these 20 years , you're living in New York City , you're in the midst of everything that's happening in Wall Street , and you were there during the 2008 financial crisis . Any interesting experiences or stories that you want to share from that time ?
Vincent IntrieriYeah , it was . As you guys know , it was a very volatile era . Things were falling apart . Banks were feared to be closing , going under . I think Airstearns got gobbled up by JP Morgan for virtually nothing . I think what was the other firm , another investment firm , was on the verge of bankruptcy . Cash mutual funds were defaulting . I mean , it was a very , very troublesome time . And the distressed debt market both distressed bank debt , distressed bonds were really falling like a rock .
Vincent IntrieriThe one thing on Wall Street is you don't want to catch a falling knife , but I saw and Carl saw . I saw and Carl saw there were opportunities here to take advantage of , and Carl was never one to shy away from risk and opportunity . And that's principally what I learned from Carl is you have to evaluate risk and opportunity , and sometimes you're not sure of whether the opportunity is as good as the risk , and you have to go with gut feel , and that comes with a lot of experience . In any event , there was one day I'll never forget it , and I tell this story often where I was in my office and I had a bunch of guys in the office and we're talking about 10 different situations that we were looking at , and Carl comes sauntering in from his office . His office was kind of not too far away from mine . He'd come through a door into his big office , into my little office . And he comes into the office . He's standing there listening and he says you know , guys , can you leave me and Vince alone here for a minute ? And so you know , can we have the room ? Yeah , we had him and I in the room .
Vincent IntrieriHe shuts the door , he says Vince and I'll try not to be too grotesque , but he says what the heck are you doing ? And I said what are you talking about , carl ? He says you're buying bonds like a drunken sailor . And I said , carl , these are all great opportunities . I said we've been through them . You like them ? He said yeah , but I didn't know you were going to go crazy like this . And I looked at him . I said , carl , here's what's going to happen . I'm either going to be as rich as you or you're going to be as rich as me . And he looks at me trying to process that . He opens his eyes and he says yeah , that's what the hell I'm afraid of .
Ralph FordI'm going to be as rich as you . No thanks .
Vincent IntrieriI think it turned out the other way . Yeah , things turned out great and he made billions during that period of time .
Ralph FordWell , it was very memorable for all of us who lived through it .
Vincent IntrieriI mean I lived through it sitting here Scary times Scary .
Ralph FordI remember watching the TV with my wife and saying you know , is there going to be an economy tomorrow ?
Vincent IntrieriWill our assets all be . I mean , people were worried , if you remember , people were worried , if you remember you had money in cash , money market funds that were feared to be going broke . I mean , it was unbelievable .
Ralph FordWell , hopefully never again , at least in our lifetimes . Well , let's talk a little bit Knock on wood , Knock on wood , right ? We never , you know . Look , every 10 years we seem to create some sort of financial mess . That's a whole different story . But you've created your own financial capital firm called VDA Capital VDA .
Vincent IntrieriCapital Management yeah , it's a private office . So in the end of 16 , I decided 20 years on Wall Street , especially with a tough taskmaster like Carl , it's a lot of years and I felt like I was getting a little burned out and I decided I wanted to do something on my own . I initially went out , was going to raise money to start my own hedge fund , and what I found out at the time is that many of the investors and Carl was going to invest also , but he wanted me to go out and raise money separate and apart from him , and he'll give me the same terms that I could raise the money on . And what was happening is I had a lot of interest to raise a substantial amount of money , but my belief was and obviously I had to put my money in with them and I was going to do that but in distressed debt , my belief is that you have to have locked up money , so money that's kind of committed for five years or more , and at the time people didn't want to do that . They would lock up for a year , but they wanted to have the ability to take out money whereby , over a one-year period , they could take all their money out , and I just was not willing to put my money side by side with what I considered hot money , which leads to a funny story Again around the 2008 timeframe .
Vincent IntrieriAt that time , many hedge funds were putting in place what were called gates , and what gates were is that it suspended the ability of investors to access their funds for a period of time , and you know it could be as long as two or three years . But when you put up gates , that's kind of like in the investment world a no-no , no one will invest with you going forward , because you're putting your money into a hedge fund or a fund which you think is liquid , and then all of a sudden they tell you sorry , not so liquid as you thought , and so people don't like that . And so you know Carl never even thought about putting up gates for his fund . And you know , at the time I think we're icon capital was probably around 15 , 10 , 15 , 20 billion dollars and some of the investors found out that carl's not putting up gates . And so you know these aggregators I call , call them . You know they work for other money people and place investments for them , and they found out that we weren't . So they come over and meet with Carl and Carl would tell them say listen , I'm not putting up a gate . You can take your money out if you want , he said . But I'm going to tell you . I recommend that you don't .
Vincent IntrieriYou don't understand the market . What's going on here . We've studied it and the dislocation we're going to make a fortune on these positions when , I don't know , might be six months , might be a year , might be two years , but we're going to make a lot of money on these . And a lot of the firms had to take the money out because they just needed it . They needed it .
Vincent IntrieriAnd the beauty of having a lot of money . You've heard the old saying money makes money . Carl had free money of his own . He put someone takes out a billion dollars . He put a billion in so it never had to sell positions . And that's what I'm talking about when I say you can't have hot money , because in a situation where you don't have the ability to refund the money that comes out , you're forced then , in order to come up with the cash , to sell positions and you'd be selling them at what we thought were distressed prices . And so it was . It's about that long view . It's about the long view . And Carl again made another fortune on those investments . And it wasn't like he didn't warn people , he kept . I remember being in these meetings so many times where he's telling people , listen , you're making a terrible mistake taking your money out . You're going to make a lot of money . And he said , oh , I know , I know , but I need the money . I got investors of my own that I got to get back to . So that's kind of the 2008 story .
Ralph FordWell , that's great . I mean , I think our listeners will love that part of it . In 2012 , you and your wife Joanne made this really generous gift to start the Intrieri Student Managed Fund here at Behrend . Why don't you tell us , you know , why did you do that and what was the need that you saw in creating this student managed fund ?
Vincent IntrieriYeah , that's a very interesting situation , ralph . I was at that time trying to give back to Penn State Behrend . Behrend was great for me , I mean , it was turned a kid that was , and I can say this in reality I was a middle class person . My parents weren't two professors . Little Italy here in Erie Grew up in little Italy here in Erie and we were real middle class , if that maybe even a little shade down from middle class . In any event , behrend was so helpful to me so I wanted to give back . So I was working I think at the time I was working with Bology Roger .
Ralph FordCapaldi . Yeah , roger Capaldi , timing's about right , probably between him and John Magan . We're both directors of the Black
Student-Managed Fund Success
Ralph FordSchool of Business .
Vincent IntrieriYes , and he was telling me one day , you know , I think , I was up here and I went to a couple of classes and he was telling me one day , you know , I think , I was up here and I went to a couple of classes and he was telling me about this great class that they do it's a mock portfolio class . And so Balaji and I had a long discussion about what I thought about mock portfolio classes and we came up with the idea and I think Margie Taylor was involved , john was involved and Balaji and we came up with this idea for the student-managed fund where students could actually get real experience managing real money . My view on these mock portfolio classes was they usually have a prize or something for who does the best investment returns , and so kids go home and figure out what one , two or three high beta portfolio stocks they could put their money in to win the prize , and that , to me , doesn't help teach them anything other than I won't say it's simulated .
Ralph FordThere's no risk , no skin in the game .
Vincent IntrieriThere's no skin in the game In any event . So we came up with this plan and we put the plan into process . Took a while to get it rolling . University Park put up a lot of impediments , shall I say .
Ralph FordI think I lived through some of those too .
Vincent IntrieriBut we got through it and ultimately the fund started . It started at $100,000 . And then over time we were doing little fundraisers where I think Kevin had come on to run development for Penn State Behrend and it wasn't working . I would match whoever put money in and you'd get I don't know a thousand bucks here and there , nothing significant , because the goal always was to get the fund up to a million dollars and then be able to use the excess over a million to give scholarships to kids here at Behrend .
Vincent IntrieriAnd so one day I was talking to Pat Black and Pat Black was instrumental in my view of getting this fund to being a working fund . Pat challenged me . He says I'll tell you what Vince I'll put in 150 if you put in 150 . I said , okay , done , deal , and we did . It grew the fund to over a half a million and the kids took it from there and I'll tell you , these kids in the student managed fund they worked their tails off . This is a lot of work . I don't think I don't think even you realize , ralph , the work it takes . They don't even get credit for it . They don't get course credit .
Ralph FordI know Well they get a little bit now .
Vincent IntrieriThey do get a little now . At the time they weren't getting any credit for course credits . They were doing it just to learn . The work it takes to do this stuff is unbelievable , and so I commend all of the students who have come through the program . Over the years I've met quite a few of them . They're all hard-charging , hard-working students who have done a great job , and the fund is now at , I think , $1.4 million and we've been giving out , I think , something like $30,000 to $50,000 worth of scholarships over the last couple of years .
Ralph FordIt's a great story , and let's talk a little bit , though . I've seen a lot of their presentations . They have these algorithms , they have their own proprietary approach . I believe they actually make the trades themselves . I mean , the faculty advisor actually puts them in .
Vincent IntrieriTim Krause has done an outstanding job , too , with helping the kids manage the money . I mean he's done a great job .
Ralph FordAnd Tim . We can go on there . He worked in , I think , the Chicago market and he's had a lot of experience . But can you talk about are they beating the market ? If you look at it with your hard-eyed investor , how are they doing ?
Vincent IntrieriI think they're doing pretty well . I mean sometimes they're doing pretty well . I mean , you know , sometimes they're below what they call their benchmark , but I think overall , you know they're . I think I looked at the numbers yesterday . I think it's probably over time , like 13 , 14% annualized return , which is pretty gosh darn good .
Ralph FordI think a lot of years they beat the benchmark .
Vincent IntrieriYeah .
Ralph FordIt may not be by a tremendous amount , but they're able to do that . Yeah , they've done an outstanding job .
Vincent IntrieriAnd they've learned it all through . Listen , I don't stick my nose in . Yeah , I feel like Tim is capable and competent to oversee this and he's done a great job . And to have someone like me , who's a pain in the butt , looking over your shoulder , I just think it would be counterproductive . So I don't . I watch it . If I have questions , I'll give Tim a call and say hey , what are we doing with this ? That the other thing . But he's done a fabulous job , so there's no reason for me to stick my two cents in but you've also .
Ralph FordWe've been at it long enough to you . Like you said earlier , you've got to see these students . I I've seen some . They're out there in wall street . They've gone on to do great things yeah and I'm not sure we were placing as many students in these high financial positions 15 years ago .
Vincent IntrieriI personally think that and I'm not super familiar with the way the University Park fund works they have a big fund also , but my understanding is that who gets to be involved in that at University Park is more the master's MBA program people and the undergrads . I don't think get as much exposure as the Penn State Behrend people get , and so I think that's invaluable from a Penn State Behrend perspective and should be a huge selling point for the business school here at Penn State Behrend .
Ralph FordIt is . We talk about it all the time to incoming students , this idea of this open , open lab model where we want students solving real problems , not mock problems . As you pointed out , there's a huge difference .
Vincent IntrieriSo huge is the difference because these kids take this seriously . They know they don't want to screw things up so that future generations don't have this model available for them to use . So they take serious their responsibilities to make sure they're doing the work and coming up with sound , logical investment decisions . So I'm very proud of Tim and all the kids who have been involved in this , and it's a great thing for Penn State , Behrend .
Ralph FordWell , without your vision and generosity , we wouldn't have it .
Vincent IntrieriLet me ask you this I'll give Margie a little credit . She's a pistol boy . She was there pushing , pushing , pushing when we first started talking about it , paul G and I and John , and she's good , she's good .
Ralph FordMargie was great . I learned so much from her and she still keeps in touch with us to this day . Yeah , no , she's great . Talk about persistence . Margie had yes ,
Penn State Barron Alumni Success
Ralph Fordshe does . Margie Taylor , we're talking about our former director of development , so let me ask you this what do you see ? You know what sets Penn State Behrend apart and our graduates that you see ?
Vincent IntrieriWell , as you and I have spoken about many times , ralph , coming from Penn State Behrend , I'm sure an eerie , top-notch reputation , right Eerie . Everyone respects and knows what kind of students and what kind of work ethic comes out of this place . But go to Wall Street or you know somewhere else in the United States they look at , they get a resume . You know where to go Penn State Behrend , file number nine . So you guys , I think what comes out of that is the students here know they have to work two times as hard as anyone else .
Vincent IntrieriNumber one and number two they come out with a chip on their shoulder that my degree from Penn State Behrend is just as good as your degree from Harvard and I personally have proven that many times over the years being on Wall Street and hedge funds . That's what I dealt with . And Carl had an affinity for Ivy League graduates and I can't tell you how many of those Ivy League graduates crashed and burned . So I think those are the two things I think . Number one they get a great education here small group of faculty , faculty to student ratio , so they get firsthand knowledge from the professors . Number one so they get a great education here and the ability to leave here with a Penn State degree in my opinion is huge .
Ralph FordI think really well said , and there's so much that our public universities do , and you just stated it really well . Well , we're coming to the end of the program . Anything you want to add , I'll give you the floor .
Vincent IntrieriNo , it's been a pleasure being affiliated with you , Ralph . You're always so helpful and the school has been great to me , like I said , both from an educational perspective and from the perspective of trying to give back to the Erie community . I no longer live in Erie , I no longer have any family in Erie , but it's always a pleasure to come back to visit with you guys up here at Penn State Barrett .
Ralph FordWell , vince , as I said , we've known each other for a while and you and Joanne are really committed to Behrend and Erie , even though you're living in Miami Miami Florida that's great . I love visiting you there . But likewise it's a real honor and privilege to be able to work with smart people like you , and so we appreciate you being on the show . I'll just finish with you know you are listening to Behrend Talks . I am Dr Ralph Ford , chancellor of Penn State Behrend , and my guest today is Vincent Trieri . Vince is the CEO of VDA Capital and we're very proud of him as a distinguished Behrend graduate , 1984 accounting . Thanks again , vince .