As co-valedictorian and summa cum laude graduate of WIU in 1988, Nick Padgett has earned one of WIU’s most distinguished awards. WIU’s College of Business and Technology (CBT) has named Padgett as the 2012 recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Padgett is the CFA-Managing Director of Frontaura Capital LLC headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Padgett took an interesting path to get to where he is now and he shared his journey with me.
Padgett is a Macomb native and attending WIU was an obvious choice to him. Interests in hardware and engineering steered his focus at first, but he soon became interested in other subjects like business and finance. In 1988, Padgett graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science with minors in math and finance from the College of Business and Technology. After completing his undergraduate degree, Padgett worked as a consultant for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), “a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 244,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries” (www.accenture.com). Padgett decided to attend business school and in 1994, he graduated with an MBA from The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College.
After graduating from business school, Padgett covered technology stocks as a research analyst for William Blair & Company, an investment bank. In 1997 Padgett joined Inforte Corp, a global technology consulting firm, where he did his most prominent work by serving on the board of directors and being one of the largest shareholders. After working for Inforte for a few years, Padgett took a career sabbatical that turned into a 65-country around-the-world honeymoon with his wife which extended into two years. During this time, Padgett conceived Frontaura Capital LLC, a company that invests in public companies in frontier markets. After researching and viewing frontier companies and stock exchanges in Africa, Padgett was unsure of where his path would take him, but he was willing to take the risk. “[Frontaura] was never a straight-line path. There was a spark after seeing [these countries] first-hand,” says Padgett. Frontaura Capital LLC is an investment fund that invests in stocks that are public in frontier countries like Mid-East Africa and Vietnam. These countries are known as frontier countries because most investors perceive these markets as too risky because they are not yet considered developed or emerging markets, but Padgett believes that they can have the best values and can be leaders in the local economy.
Padgett didn’t think this was how his career was going to go, but he believes that’s true for most graduates. “What I ended up doing isn’t necessarily what I chose to do [at first] which is probably going to be true for most graduates. It’s important to realize that you never stop learning.” Padgett advises to, “pay attention to the world and engage in it. Just because you have a degree doesn’t mean you’re done learning.” Padgett warns future graduates that your interests will change over time; he encourages students to make sure they’re doing something that they love. “At any point in my life, I’ve always been doing exactly what I want to do at that point. That’s key, figure out what you really want to do and find [that career] and achieve your goals,” says Padgett.
On Monday, Padgett was honored with a community luncheon held by the CBT. During his visit to the Macomb campus, Padgett also spoke to economics, finance and computer science classes. For more information on Padgett, contact Becky Paulsen, CBT director of development, at B-Paulsen@wiu.edu.
