Ken Conrad, earned his economics degree from Pomona College and fell in love with programming when he completed a senior capstone project at Harvey Mud College, a neighboring engineering school. “The only task the engineers would trust me with was building the user interface,” Conrad said about programming efficient routings for garbage trucks. “But after graduation people were desperate to hire anyone who could use a PC. A recruiter noticed my resume because of the word ‘algorithm.’”

That one word on Conrad’s resume resulted in a job at Nasdaq building a surveillance system for insider trading. He increased his knowledge of stock markets as a chartered financial analyst in asset management, earned a master’s in operations research, and moved to Wisconsin after completing the coursework for his Ph.D. in economics where his network connected him to a position at CUNA. He managed the Madison-based insurance firm’s derivative book, built stock selection models for the equity team, and worked on fixed income projects. Since then, Conrad has held positions as an analyst and fund manager at M&I, BMO, and Columbia Threadneedle. In 2022, he began teaching as an adjunct professor at UW-Milwaukee.

UW-Milwaukee taught Conrad he enjoyed teaching, and his residency at small, close-knit Beloit College has taught him how much he loves the student-professor interaction.

“At Beloit, students are more engaged in the subject, and they feel they can ask me questions,” he says. “When we find the answers to their questions, everyone is better off for it. That’s what I really enjoy.”

Every morning, Conrad does a ‘what’s happened in the market recap’ before the market opens and then listens to podcasts about the market on the drive to campus. Instead of opening his office door to clients, he holds office hours for students while checking the markets again to include any updates or changes before heading to class, where he opens with… the markets.

Conrad is teaching two classes this spring: Financial Literacy for Life and Investments and Portfolio Management. In Financial Literacy, Conrad works with students outside the School of Business to build the right habits so that they can withstand the adverse events that can happen in life. Students consider decisions about insurance, housing, retirement drawn from real data on projected salary and cost of living in a community they may live. Conrad’s experience in real firms turns finance theory into a practical skill set and he loves using his life experiences to answer questions about equities, the content where textbooks are often the weakest, and he assigns each student to follow one stock throughout the semester — assess the stock’s technicals, calculate certain ratios, figure out which companies are appropriate peers and use those to gauge their company’s valuation. Students also learn teamwork through a portfolio simulation where they buy and sell multiple stocks

“In finance, there is often a gap between theory and real-world application. Professor Conrad closes that gap by teaching from direct experience and real-time market insight,” said Hitali Kothari ’26, quantitative economics major and finance and math double minor. “Because the class is shaped by what is actually happening in markets, you get a glimpse of what working in a finance office might really look like.”

At midsemester, Conrad recognizes the challenge and satisfaction of the opportunity to customize his courses, adding an idea or cutting a concept from past presentations, and he seeks to increase his collaboration with the various academic and extracurricular activities students are involved in — coordinating with the career events with Schools, connecting students to speakers on and off campus, and replicating his successful career forums at UW-M where financial advisors participated on a moderated panel to learn about ups and downs in the industry and the variety of available positions.

“Conrad talks about his real world experience, and more importantly he is an open, genuine person who is easy to learn from and fun to be around,” says Serhat Ayebe ’28, quantitative economics major and finance minor. “Mentors at Beloit have told me what they remember from their classes are the professors, and it’s true. I couldn’t be more grateful for the class, but what I value most about Ken is the personal relationship.” Ayebe, president of Finance Club, is especially excited about working with Conrad to create a stronger foundation for the club’s money management opportunities through which students gain real investment experience essential for interviews and internships. Conrad is providing insights “beyond the spreadsheet” to structure how the club recognizes and responds to risk.

Conrad remembers a divide that existed during his own undergraduate experience between classroom instructors and practitioners. “You might have found that type of lived experience in the music department with students studying jazz but not investments.” Conrad began his residency in spring 2026 and will continue in the 2026-27 year, committed to ensuring students learn how to think beyond the textbook.