In September of 2016, both Matthew Roxburgh and Elijah Adekugbe came up with an idea for starting a Finance Club at Trinity Western University. The idea was that the Club would be open to anyone interested in studying Finance. Students would look at and analyze current events in the world of finance, network themselves to numerous firms, and finally value stocks and bonds and pitch them to the clu
b. The Club would then decide on whether or not to invest in the stock on OTIS "Online Trading and Investment Simulator" - a platform created at the University of Pennsylvania. Matthew and Elijah realized the opportunity for higher education at TWU through this club and soon after started discussing the layout of the club. As discussions went on, Matthew and Elijah quickly realized that the Finance Club in and of itself was not enough, and that there was an opportunity for something far greater. The initial idea soon changed to a Finance Club that would raise a small amount of money, mostly through club fees, and invest in real stocks for the purpose of realizing a return on investment. However, we quickly realized that the difficulty in satisfying everyones opinion may be difficult and the layout of the fund would not work. After this realization, Matthew and Elijah decided to change the structure from an open club to a small elite group of the top finance students who would work closely together in valuing and investing stocks and bonds. At this point, Matthew and Elijah recruited two of TWU's top business students to help with the founding of the Fund - Mark Antoniuk and Mitchell Urzinger. As the team met, they recognized the potential of this fund. The founding team of TWU's SMIF didn't want to only have an impact on the elite Finance Students at TWU, but also wanted to make a difference in the world. It was during these discussions that the team concluded on donating 100% of profits to various non profits that were either related to education and finance, or non profits that were closely connected to Trinity Western University.
