Volume 67, Issue 4

Q&A with Malindretos

by Elliot Rockoff

Rockoff: Where did you earn your degrees?

PROFESSOR MALINDRETOS: I received all my degrees from Rutgers University - including my PhD.

Rockoff: What have you done prior to joining YU?

PROFFESOR MALINDRETOS: I have worked many places among them, Rutgers, St. Johns as a Professor. I also worked at Solomon Smith Barney as a money manger. I have also run a real estate firm for many years.

ROCKOFF: How long have you been at Yeshiva?

PROFFESOR MALINDRETOS: This is my second year.

ROCKOFF: Why teach as opposed to staying in the finance field, which is more lucrative?

PROFFESOR MALINDRETOS: I love academia. I don't love corporate America

ROCKOFF: What do you think you can bring to Sy Syms?

PROFFESOR MALINDRETOS: Well, I think that I have both theoretical and practical knowledge, which is useful to students, especially in a field such as finance. I’ve done these things that I discuss in class; I know how to meet payrolls, and things such as that. I have done it. I have done money management in terms of investments. I actually managed money for people so the theoretical practical application is very useful to have.

ROCKOFF: What plans do you have for the future?

PROFFESOR MALINDRETOS: I am very excited about being a valuable member of this department: I believe I can be a very productive member of the Sy Syms School of Business. With the direction of Dean Snow we have a lot of potential to advance and become a very well known school, perhaps have a niche in the market. I know that the dean wants us to have executive education, certification such as the CFA, certified financial planner, and courses in executive management. I think that that has immense potential for the school. If we can be known as a practically oriented school, which actually does business, I think that can set us apart. I think eventually we can do an MBA here as well, and I think I want to grow with the school. I am very productive right now doing a lot of research and publication. Other professors have had numerous articles that have been published and we had a lead article in the Atlantic Economic Journal a few months ago, a much-respected journal. We are moving forward to do a couple of books and projects to publish in scientific journals. I want to continue on the research front as well as the teaching front because I like both.

ROCKOFF: What do you think of the current situation in the markets? It has been seesawing lately; what do you think we can expect?

PROFFESOR MALINDRETOS: You are asking a difficult question. I think that there are different factors influencing the stock market and those factors brought it down the last few years. I think that the stock, market if you look at the data, is the best vehicle of return of any other field including real estate, but it needs to have certain factors in place, I think the factors which hurt the stock market in the recent past can be altered so we can have an improved stock market in the next few years. A few of those factors are to address the huge conflicts of interest in place, and I think the regulators are addressing it already I think we need to address it further and put a plan in place to punish the guilty and to control conflicts of interest from arising in the first place. Another reason I think the stock market will do well is the economy seems to be picking up and a better economy usually goes along with a better stock market. I think those two reasons are critical. Of course, the other factor that has hurt us the last year or so is something new to this country, terrorism, and certainly that has a negative effect because the stock market to a great extent reflects confidence. When people have confidence they invest, if they don’t have confidence they don’t invest, that certainly has hurt us so I hope that we address that issue and take steps to reduce or eliminate terrorism

ROCKOFF: Back to the corporate scandals, do you think the worst is over or are we going to see more cases corporate corruption?

PROFFESOR MALINDRETOS: I think the worst is over, and most people are honest and law abiding; it is always the case where a few not-so-decent people create problems for the decent people. So Wall Street is no different from other fields of human endeavor, but it just so happened a lot of those scandals broke out now. Also, scandals usually follow a period of excesses, a period of boom – this we have here. It’s not new by the way; in the late eighties there were also scandals. It happens every 15 years or so.

ROCKOFF: Do you think our economy will ever be able to absorb terrorist attacks? Or are we prone to falter after every single such event?

PROFFESOR MALINDRETOS: 9/11 was a huge tragedy; it was also a great surprise, so to say. Both of those effects hurt the market, besides of course, more importantly the large loss of life. I think small events probably will not hurt the market too much. But as we saw in the sniper case in the recent past, I was talking to a relative of mine in Washington; he told me that business was dead in the area, people were afraid.

ROCKOFF: How to you think the job market will be for Sy Syms students in the coming years?

PROFFESOR MALINDRETOS: I think there is nothing new under the sun. There is always a cycle, so it is with jobs. I think that business students in general do well, for eternity they do well. Finance students do well, but other fields do well. I think it is a short-term phenomenon, the economy is not doing well, firms are not hiring people, so when the economy picks up firms will pick up hiring as well. I am confident that in the coming years the job market will be quite good. Presently the market for finance is not that good. But you don’t study finance now for now. Because they are not hiring you now, you are going to be graduating in two or three years. Then I believe the market could be quite good. It’s hard to evaluate how the economy will unfold in comparison to the nineties, where there was an unprecedented rate of growth for an unprecedented number of years, even though the economy will not do well for nine straight years it will do well. The cycle happens again and again and certainly there will be more jobs -- more hiring.

ROCKOFF: Do you think the success of the nineties can be matched again?

PROFFESOR MALINDRETOS: That is a hard question. That was an unprecedented economic expansion that lasted for nine years. It probably will not be easy to obtain for nine straight years. But if we go for five years, I’ll be happy. Then we will have a drop again. It is the business cycle. We don’t know how to avoid a business cycle and I don’t think we should have to avoid it because it’s like a life cycle. You can’t avoid a life cycle.

ROCKOFF: What else are you involved in outside of school?

PROFFESOR MALINDRETOS: One thing I’m doing now is research in finance. A couple of people are doing a book on the qualities of Moses as a business leader. Taking Moses, a man of great integrity, what qualities does he depict which make him a good leader, and can business leaders emulate those qualities to be good business leaders. We are writing a book on that matter right now. I also attended a scientific conference this summer in Greece. We also plan to have a conference here at Yeshiva, perhaps on business ethics, and other aspect of business management. And in a year or two on campus (we might have) a conference on different fields of scientific endeavor.

John Malindrettos is Visiting Associate Professor of Finance at Sy Syms ¨

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