Patrick O'Dea
Entry #1
For some, the Wells Fargo scandal seems to be a nightmare that has the potential to be never ending. One full year after the news broke of the falsified accounts within Wells Fargo, there has been a troublesome development. Investigators uncovered what seems to be an extra 1 million fake accounts on top of the other 3 million or so that had already been discovered. Legislature has been grilling top executives of Wells Fargo for months now, and this new discovery has only added fuel to the fire.
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Wells-Fargo Scandal Continues
Entry #2
The Equifax Disaster
Based out of Atlanta, GA, Equifax is a company that provides web-based data management. Some of this data includes phone numbers, emails, and other extremely personal information. This September, Equifax security systems were breached by hackers and roughly 145.5 million people had their account infiltrated.
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Entry #3
Bitcoin: What All the Rage is About
Its creator, Sergio Lerner came up with the idea back in 2008 as a “friend to friend” currency only distributed through the internet. Since its inception, the buzz surrounding Bitcoin has only grown. Transactions on Bitcoin at the beginning of 2008 was roughly 2,000 people. At the half-way period this year, Bitcoin has recorded over 10 Million transactions. People all around the world began buying bitcoins any way they knew how, predicting that the value of each coin would increase. As time passed, and Bitcoin became increasingly more popular, different sectors of the cryptocurrency began being implemented. For example, this past year alone Bitcoin has brought out both Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold, both of which serve different purposes. At its genesis, financial analysts and institutions did not take Bitcoin seriously. Now Bitcoin has gone public with 3 different branches and it estimated at a value of over $7 Billion. Those same financial analysts are now predicting the value of one bitcoin-once worth a little above $10-will be worth 10,000/coin come Christmas time.
Wells Fargo has attempted to begin the mending of their client makeup by filing for claims. Although a small step, investors and analysts see it as Wells Fargo attempting to regain favor. However, experts predict it will take years, maybe even a decade, to fully regain the trust of their clients and society as a whole. When a story like this, or the Equifax scandal comes out, it highlights the amount of trust we as a society put into these corporations, knowing that they too can and have made mistakes in the past. Victims of the Wells Fargo scandal will file for bankruptcy, and might file for claims, but the damage has been done and Wells Fargo will feel the backlash in the form of distrust within the industry.
With this information in the hands of the wrong people, the damage could be catastrophic. Phone numbers and emails could be sold to scammers, passwords and social security numbers could be shared. What makes this story even more tragic is that Equifax knew about the breach back in July, a full 2 months before announcing the breach, but did nothing to notify anyone outside of the company. As of now Equifax claims to be taking progressive measures to make sure they can prevent this in the future, and are also providing a website where you can enter in your social security number to see if you have been affected by the breach. Consumers are hesitant, for good reason. As the weeks and months go on, investigators are learning more and more about exactly what the nature of the data is that was stolen by the hackers. Recently, a report in the Atlantic was published which went into detail about how not only was personal information taken, but financial information and transactions as well. Meaning that these hackers could sell all of this information to a company, and in turn that company would know your birthday, your social security number and your spending habits. Seems like a nightmare situation for most people in this country, what do you think?
In the past few years, people have become more and more familiar with Bitcoin. However, some still are unaware of existence and how significant it could possibly be in the time to come. Bitcoin is apart of category of the internet monetary cycle, also known as a “cryptocurrency”.
My name is Patrick O'Dea and I'm from Chicago, IL. I am currently an Undergraduate student at Penn State University studying Energy Business & Finance. As part of my extracurricular activities, I am a member of the Energy Business & Finance society as well as The Penn State Investment Association (PSIA) - Energy Sector.
In my free time I enjoy going to sporting events, meeting new people, exploring new places, and playing and composing music on the piano.
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Professionally, I am looking for full-time employment following my graduation in the spring of 2018 in the Finance and Energy fields.
I am currently pursuing a degree in Energy Business & Finance at The Pennsylvania State University. The Energy Business and Finance (EBF) program offers a transformative approach by integrating the study of energy economics and risk analysis within an engineering department. The EBF program emphasizes risk analysis and decision-making related to energy systems and environmental issues. Students are challenged to examine problems using rigorous quantitative analysis.
College Experience
Professional Experience
I have worked for two environmental engineering & consulting companies since coming to college. My first job was for Bluestone Environmental as a warehouse and inventory manager. Next, I worked for Environmental Consulting Group Inc. where I was first a data analyst. Then, I became a full time trained environmental technician working both in the field and in the office.
Experience
Goals & Aspirations
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I came to Penn State with the intention of studying Business. However, as time progressed, I found that the energy industry was rapidly evolving, becoming more competitive with more recent technological advances. I decided to enter the energy finance industry in order to provide insightful and impactful guidance; whether it be working for a energy-efficient light fixture company or working in a financial firm that deals in energy futures, I hope to make a difference.
I am pursuing a degree in Energy, Business and Finance. Throughout my education and professional experiences, I have grown confident in synthesizing statistics to better analyze decision making as it applies to a company, in relation to the energy industry, best practices and bear in mind the financial risks involved with such decisions.
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