Portfolio associate and researcher, Reynders, McVeigh Capital Management, LLC, Boston

Maria Arabatzis is a runner whose high energy helped her keep a step ahead while a student athlete at Clark. Today, it helps her meet the daily challenge of beating the market.

Arabatzis wanted to be a dentist when she arrived on the pre-med track at Clark, but after a couple of courses (finance with Prof. Frank Jenkins and monetary economics with Prof. Maurice Weinrobe) she changed her mind and major.

While in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship program, she created the first-ever Clark 5K Green Run, now an annual event.

Arabatzis starts her day around 5:30 a.m. with a workout and usually a jog along the Charles River. At 7:30 she’s at work managing client services and portfolios, and monitoring market news and world events that affect the stock markets. “Then I meet up with friends to explore Boston, head to bed, and get back to it again the next day.”

“The biggest challenge is managing my time and making sure everything gets done,” she says. “Working for a boutique investment firm means everyone has to help out with many aspects of the business, so there are always more tasks to do than there are hours in the day. The rewards are speaking with clients who are pleased with their portfolios and seeing the accounts I helped manage doing well, and beating the markets.”