Rihem Sassi, WH ’26, Sousse, Tunisia
This summer, I had the opportunity to work as a research intern at Capstone DC, where I focused on policy analysis and its impact on various investments. My role allowed me to work with both the financial services team and the special situations team, offering a diverse and enriching experience in the field of policy research.
During my first rotation with the financial services team, I focused on banking regulation and education policy. One of my key responsibilities was to keep clients updated on significant developments such as the stress test results and the Basel III endgame. In addition, I contributed to an education private equity project, where I conducted research on education policies in the UK, UAE, and China. This involved analyzing the potential impact of election outcomes, VAT exemption policies, and business rates in the UK, as well as exploring the focus on cultural identity in UAE private school laws and the effects of policies on our target schools in China. I also undertook the task of analyzing the education budget across 50 states, identifying unspent funds, and creating marketing slides based on my findings.
In my second rotation, I shifted focus to merger arbitrage, where I worked on producing notes that analyzed potential outcomes and their implications. My final project was on banking regulations, specifically the Basel III endgame. I provided a comprehensive background on Basel regulations, discussed their impact on banks, and offered predictions on how upcoming policy changes could affect the banking sector. This project was particularly rewarding as it allowed me to dive deep into a complex topic, develop expertise, and present my findings to the entire company. The positive feedback I received on my presentation reinforced the value of the work I did over the summer and highlighted the importance of policy research in the financial industry.
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2024 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here
