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Buena Vista's Jacob Welch joins
elite group: Harvard graduates
elite group: Harvard graduates
By RICHARD HARRIS (From the July 12, 2006 issue)
Jacob (Jake) Welch of Buena Vista recently returned from a trip with friends to China, where he saw the “Great Wall” and experienced a different land and culture. The trip was taken after he did something that perhaps even fewer area residents have done – he graduated from Harvard University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics, graduating with honors (cum laude).
After a brief stay at home with his family, Welch then headed off to New York City,
Welch is the newest member of the firm’s Private Equity Group, which has managed more than $14 billion in investments in 95 companies since 1987. As an analyst, Welch will help decide what companies the firm should invest in.
He said he is excited about working for his new employer. He believes it is a firm that makes investments that truly help companies. According to the firm’s website, “Blackstone does not base investment decisions on swings in conventional wisdom about the attractiveness of industries. The firm has successfully invested in industries such as cable television, rural cellular, refining, and automotive parts among others when they were perceived to be out of favor with the markets.”
He also said that analyzing prospective companies for investment opportunities will help him learn more about economics and business overall.
“I think this will provide me with an interesting perspective of the market and the business world,” Welch said. “I’ll learn why a certain part of the market may be ready to grow. But it’s not just about the performance of the market overall, because we look at the strength of individual companies, so I’ll learn a lot about companies from the ground up – what makes them good or bad.”
Welch said he learned a great deal during his years at Harvard. First, he had to simply adjust to life at the prestigious university, which was the first college established in the country and has been a leader ever since.
One thing he had to adjust to was simply being in such a “bubble of really smart people,” noting that last year around 3,000 high school valedictorians applied for admission and the university only accepts around 1,600 new students each year. In addition, Welch said the students at Harvard are a very diverse group.
“Harvard has so many different people from so many different walks of life,” he said. “But it does a good job of helping people come together and get to know each other. … There was always some sort of activity going on – guest speakers, parties, movies, plays. During your freshman year it’s almost too hard to slow down and think.”
Many of the guest speakers were household names and “movers-and-shakers” on a global scale. They included: Robert McNamara, Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton, Barbara Bush, the Dali Lama and Bill Gates.
“Being around all of the smart people and seeing the speakers that the university attracted, plus knowing of people who have been through Harvard and had a lot of success definitely made it seem like you could be at the top of your game and that Harvard would open a lot of doors,” said Welch.
But he didn’t just sit around campus waiting for somebody to open a door. Welch applied himself in and out of the classroom. As a sophomore, he learned a lot about running a business by, well, running a business. He was the manager of distribution for Harvard Distribution Services, a business that is completely operated by about 25 students. The business focused on working with companies in direct-to-student marketing and did about $6 million of business annually.
In addition, he spent many of his summer months taking advantage of various opportunities to learn and expand his horizons. After his freshman year, he accepted a summer fellowship to work in U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel’s office. Another summer, he had a fellowship to work with a non-profit organization in Peru that focuses on anti-poverty issues.
Welch said that while he certainly enjoyed his time at Harvard and traveling to other places around the country and world, he still has a soft spot for “back home” in Buena Vista. He noted that a lot of local residents have wished him well and told him how proud they are of him.”
“It’s nice to come from a place where people care about you and are interested in what you’re doing,” he said, adding that it’s always “comforting to come back home.”
Welch said a lot of people have helped him get where he is so far – so many that he didn’t want to mention any by name (other than acknowledging his family’s support) for fear of inadvertently leaving someone out.
He also said he feels that rather than being something to overcome, he believes his rural roots and education in a relatively small school system was an advantage that helped him prepare to apply to a prestigious institution of high learning – as well as succeed once accepted.
“Some young people may think, ‘I come from a small town and we don’t have a lot of money, so what can I do?’ but they can look for ways to turn that into an opportunity,” said Welch. “Our high school is good. The teachers are concerned about their students and helpful.”
He said that being at a small school gave him more opportunities to be involved in a variety of things and gain valuable knowledge and experience. He mentioned being involved in things like Academic Decathlon and Student Council in high school, playing tennis with a local tennis pro, and working for his hometown newspaper as examples.
“My advice to students would be to look at what’s out there, find out what you can do, and do it,” he said.
Jacob Welch is the son of Kim and Dawn Welch of Buena Vista.
