Mark Gerard

06/13/2025

This is Finn's first week of his internship with Red Chalk in Chicago! Yes, both guys will be doing a similar commute from their Aunt/Uncle's home and will hopefully be back on weekends. Finn worked for Gordy's Marine since he was fourteen with the last couple of years managing the Abbey Marina Harbor while running a side business with boat clients. He also helped with the accounting in the off season. During the school year, he works on the accounting for the biotechnology department. He is very excited to be able to dive deeper into his professional experience. We look forward to seeing his career progress!

10/02/2024

As many of you know, we have always had deep interest in the outdoors. Our daughter plans on heading to college next year to study wildlife research. Last weekend, we were in northern Minnesota near Voyageur National Park with the team from the Voyageurs Wolf Project. VWP is a non-profit started ten years ago by two graduate students. They have a large social media presence and following, where they share their research, along with a lot of HD video from their 300 trail cams. In the last ten years, the team has partnered with almost 200 landowners in the area and every year they collar a number of wolves for tracking, which has enabled them to map the territories of these packs in the greater ecosystem. I was amazed by the effort put forth by the organization, especially since the team is actually quite small! One ongoing project is a partnership with a 1500 acre cattle ranch that has experienced calf depredations for decades. They installed over 7 miles of "wolf-proof" fencing around this ranch and the owner shared with me that this is the first year with zero depredations. I highly encourage you to check the group and if you like podcasts, check out some recent podcasts interviewing Tom Gable, co-founder!

The official website of the Voyageurs Wolf Project, which is a wolf research project that studies wolves in and around Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota.

01/12/2024

We closed this afternoon for a week to remodel. I feel like we just moved in, but when I think about it, a lot has happened in ten years. Our real estate team put together a plan for new flooring, furniture, and paint. We were so busy this year that all I can recall from the plans is that we are building out a new office. Can’t wait to see it next Friday!

10/18/2023

First decade in allows for some reflection. I am grateful for the team we have; Bill Osborne and Aaron Urbelis working to make our office a wonderful place, every day helping our clients.

Northwest Quarterly > Blog > Archive > Summer-Fall 2023 > Charles Schwab’s Rockford Independent Branch: A Decade of Building Wealth, Relationships Northwest Business MagazineSummer-Fall 2023 Charles Schwab’s Rockford Independent Branch: A Decade of Building Wealth, Relationships Posted by Steven...

05/16/2023

Before Joanna's dad passed, he told us to keep his jeep and make it topless. It sat idle until we resurrected it in 2019. Now it gets lots of sunshine. This spring, "Bert's Jeep" was given a lift kit, disc brakes and new shoes. Today it comes home - topless until November.

04/07/2023

We’re forever dedicated to being first in the hearts of our clients. We are deeply honored to rank #1 in the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Full-Service Investor Satisfaction Study and to rank highest in products and services and value for fees.

Charles Schwab has earned the highest ranking in overall customer satisfaction in the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Full-Service Investor Satisfaction Study, SM . With an index score of 752 on a 1,000-point scale, Schwab scored 25 points above the industry average in overall satisfaction. According to the st...

03/30/2023

A client walked in today with a pizza! Curious to understand why, my colleague Aaron Urbelis shared with me the following photo taken mid February, just before he replaced the client's tire in the parking lot. Good to see that his dad taught him some valuable life skills!

03/04/2023

Now that our old intern Liam is moving on to greener pastures, I've identified our next candidate. Finnian Gerard has the right attitude and aptitude to be on the team, as demonstrated by earning 2nd in Financial Consulting at the State Competition for DECA! He heads to Orlando for the International competition in April. In typical Finn fashion, we had no idea what areas he was competing in. The kid is a self starter. We have high hopes for this young man. Wish him luck!

02/20/2023

I am proud to say that our Schwab intern has another success under his belt. After scoring A’s in his first semester of college, Liam Gerard earned a spot with the Investment Banking Club at University Wisconsin Madison. Liam first learned about it a year ago when we attended an information day for the Wisconsin School of Business. He met two senior club members at that time and knew it was a group he wanted to join. Starting that day, he read a lot, networked a ton, checked all of the boxes, and last week he applied as one of 200 kids for one of ten spots. The interview process was rigorous, and he made it. Next up - Liam is seeking an internship for summer 2023!

06/16/2022

I love seeing the success of teenagers! Twenty teens earn this award worldwide. That is a very bar! Good job, Reiyah!

It is a pleasure to introduce 2022 Spirit of Ramanujan Fellow Reiyah Jacobs. Reiyah is a high school sophomore who hails from Apex, North Carolina. She loves math. She is a World Science Scholar, and a Davidson Institute Young Scholar. She is the student coach of her school's junior high math team, and she is founding a math club at her school. Outside of math, Reiyah has a passion for English. She is the head writer for her school's newspaper, and she enjoys writing short stories. She will use her SOR Fellowship to support her participation in the Honors Summer Math Camp (HSMC), to be held in San Marcos, Texas.