List of Wealthiest College Graduates see assets jump by nearly 15%

Members of the list of the Wealthiest College Graduates saw their stock portfolios jump by 14.94% over 2010, impressively outpacing the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which gained 10.70% over the course of the year. The annual list of the Wealthiest College Graduates, which is compiled by Donor Watch, includes 180 wealthy individuals who had nearly $120 billion in their SEC filed stock portfolios as of 12/31/2010. During the first quarter of 2011, their stock portfolios jumped another 5.41%, representing $6.47 billion in new wealth.

According to Donor Watch, the 180 wealthy individuals on the list have a total 292 undergraduate and advanced degrees from leading colleges and universities. Notably, 35% of the list’s members had MBAs and 9% had JDs.

The top individuals on the list include:
Jeff Bezos, CEO & founder of Amazon.com (AMZN), graduate of Princeton University
Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources Inc's (CLR), graduate of Phillips College and Northwestern Oklahoma State University (MA)
Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corp (MSFT), graduate of Harvard College
Phil Knight, Chairman of Nike Inc (NKE), graduate of University of Oregon and Stanford University (MBA)
Pierre Omidyar, founder of Ebay Inc (EBAY), graduate of Tufts University
Rupert H Johnson Jr., Vice-Chairman of Franklin Resources (BEN), graduate of Washington and Lee University

The top ten schools with the highest number of undergraduate alumni on the list include: Harvard College, Princeton University, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, University of California Berkeley, University of North Carolina, Stanford University, New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Minnesota. Some other notables include University of Kansas, UCLA, University of Arkansas and Lehigh University, all of which had at least three alums make the list.

81% of the individuals on the lists saw their stock portfolios increase in value over 2010. Notably, fifty of the gainers saw their portfolios increase by over $100 million each, making them key targets for prospect researchers.

One of the $100 million plus gainers is Tracy W. Krohn, the Chief Executive Officer and founder of W&T Offshore (WTI). W&T Offshore’s stock has nearly doubled since November of 2010, a trend that has increased Mr. Krohn’s holdings in the company by more than $242 million. Similarly, University of California, Berkeley graduate David Schwartz saw his stock portfolio jump by $156 million. Schwartz, who co-founded Bio-Rad Laboratories (BIO) with his wife Alice Norman Schwartz, benefitted from the strong performance of BIO’s stock over 2010.

However, things are not all bad for the executives who saw their stock portfolios decrease over 2010. One such example is Manny Mashouf, the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Bebe Stores, Inc (BEBE). While BEBE’s stock underperformed during 2010, Mr. Mashouf still managed to sell off 550,000 shares of the company, netting the San Francisco State University alumnus more than $4.5 million in cash.

Donor Watch’s list of Wealthiest College Graduates is used by prospect researchers and development officials at leading colleges, universities and non-profits to track the wealth of their alumni and top donors. Beyond the Wealthiest College Graduate list, Donor Watch compiles various custom lists for specific universities, causes, regions, and metro-areas.

Donor Watch’s prospect research tool has powerful summary and analysis features that provide critical prospect details and reports at the click of a button. Donor Watch also provides real-time email alerts so your team will be notified immediately following a major wealth creating event.

For more information about Donor Watch and its top donor prospect targeting reports, please visit Donor Watch’s Website or sign-up for a free trial here. . Donor Watch provides its reports and analyses to the development offices and prospect research teams at many leading colleges, universities and non-profits. Donor Watch's unique and robust set of research tools empower fund raisers and prospect researchers to manage their relationships with top and high potential donors.

Prospect Researching for Golden Opportunities

If your prospect research team is looking to closeout this year's annual campaign on a high note, one of your best friends should be insider transaction filings. Many prospect research teams are constantly bombarded with research requests and are often only able to look into high potential individual donors on a quarterly or sometimes even just an annual basis. If your team is doing this, you may be missing out on some golden prospecting opportunities.

An important category of commonly undervalued prospects are senior executives that hold large amounts of stock options, but never hold significant blocks of their employers' stock. Many prospect researchers know of Larry Ellison and his $37 billion stake in Oracle Corp (ORCL), but a much smaller group are familiar with his secretive right hand Safra Catz. A quick look at Ms. Catz's stock holdings reveals that she only holds 11,336 shares or approximately $370 thousand in Oracle's stock.

Her holdings seem pretty paltry for someone who has been a President of one of the world's largest technology companies since the beginning of 2004, but what is being overlooked is the large number of options she has exercised throughout the years. Safra Catz frequently exercises large blocks of options and then quickly sells them on the open market. According to Donor Watch, Safra Catz has sold almost $177 million in stock since becoming Oracle's President. On one day last December, she exercised and sold 500,000 shares, raising more than $15.9 million!

Steven J. Sinofsky, who has been President of Microsoft Corporation's (MSFT) Windows Division since mid 2009, currently holds nearly $18.7 million in the technology giant's stock. By concentrating just on Mr. Sinofsky's stock holdings, one would overlook the $31.4 million in stock that he has sold since early 2010. Notably, the Cornell University and Harvard Business School graduate has already sold more than $12 million of MSFT's stock since the beginning of 2011.

Another prime example is Kevin A. Plank, the CEO and founder of Under Armour Inc (UA). On any given day since 2006, if you had looked into Mr. Plank's holdings in his $3.3 billion sports clothing empire, you would have been surprised to see that he held a measly 100 shares of Under Armour or approximately $65 thousand worth of stock, according to yesterday's closing price. When you factor in his salary of $26,000 a year, you may wrongfully come to the conclusion that he is hardly worth a phone call.

If you took deeper look into Kevin Plank's filings, you would discover that the 37 year old CEO owns 12,187,600 shares of UA Class B stock, which is not publicly-traded. Through a series of transactions since late 2005, Mr. Plank has converted his Class B stock to common stock and then on the same day immediately sold those shares on the open market, effectively raising nearly $160 million in cash.

Fortunately for prospect researchers with subscriptions to Donor Watch, they do not have to wade through the dozens of filings where insiders report their stock sales. Donor Watch's prospecting tool has powerful summary and analysis features that provide all of this information at the click of a button. Donor Watch also provides real-time email alerts so your team will be notified immediately following a major wealth creating event.

For more information about Donor Watch or its top donor prospect targeting reports, please visit Donor Watch's Website. Donor Watch provides its reports and analyses to the development offices and prospect research teams at many leading colleges, universities and non-profits. Donor Watch's unique and robust set of research tools empower fund raisers to manage their relationsmhips with top and high potential donors. To sign-up for a free trial of Donor Watch, please click here.

Prospect Research Report: Graduates of Top US Schools sell nearly $5 billion in Stock

Insiders that graduated from top US colleges and universities sold nearly $5 billion in stock over December of 2010 and January 2011, according to a recently report by Donor Watch.

Topping the list were Stanford University and Harvard College, both of which had total alumni selling activity that was greater than $250 million in stock. Stanford University's alumni stock sales were led by Jeff A Jacobson of Jones Lang Lasalle Inc (JLL) and Doris Fisher, an honorary director of Gap Inc (GPS), while Harvard College's selling was led by David Dominik of Express Inc (EXPR) and Richard G Wolford of Del Monte Foods Co (DLM). Del Monte Foods was bought out late last year by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, leaving the food company's management team with some fatter wallets.

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Rising Dow and Looming Tax Code Changes create Big Opportunities for Prospect Researchers

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed out the month of October 2010 at 11,118, having gained 269 points or 2.5% during the month. Since the beginning of September, the Dow steadily rose by over 980 points, representing an increase of almost 10%. The stock market's solid advances, as well as looming capital gains tax changes that will take effect in 2011, likely influenced the significant increase in stock sales by US executives during the month of October.

Donor Watch's most recent report, which covers stock sale transactions in October by wealthy college graduates, covers $4.6 billion in sales, a significant up-tick over last month. The top sellers that were reviewed in the analysis all received undergraduate degrees from major US colleges and universities.

Topping the list were the University of Chicago and the University of Southern California, both of which had total alumni selling activity that was greater than $350 million in stock during the month of October. Like the 3rd Quarter of 2010, UofC's Marc Benioff of Saleforce.com (CRM) and USC's Larry Ellison of Oracle Corp (ORCL) led their respective universities in cash raising transactions.

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Donor Watch analysis of Wealthiest College Graduates identifies high potential targets for fundraisers

US Executives significantly cashed out of their stock holdings during the third quarter of 2010. According to a recent Donor Watch report, a selection of wealthy college graduates accounted for more than $5 billion of selling activity during the quarter. The top sellers that were reviewed in the analysis all graduated from major US colleges and universities. Topping the list were Princeton University and the University of Chicago, both of which have alums that sold more than $200 million in stock during the quarter. A significant portion of Princeton’s selling activity was made by Amazon.com’s (AMZN) founder and CEO Jeffrey Bezos who sold over 1 million shares of AMZN over the quarter. University of Chicago graduate and Oracle Corp (ORCL) founder, Larry Ellison accounted for the majority of his alma-mater’s selling activity. Mr. Ellison, who sold 8,000 shares of ORCL, made all of his transactions during the month of September Other schools whose alumni surpassed the $100 million mark are the University of Michigan, the University of Southern California (USC), the University of Maryland, Boston College, the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of Minnesota. USC’s alumni sales were led by Marc Benioff, another tech industry success story, who is the founder, CEO and Chairman of Salesforce.com (CRM). Mr. Benioff sold a series of 10,000 share lots of CRM throughout the quarter, which together raised more than $60 million in cash. According to Donor Watch, many small schools also made the list, including Amherst College, Rice University, Union College, Bowdoin College, Wesleyan University, Lehigh University, Colgate University, and the College of the Holy Cross, among others. The top school on the list was not even an undergraduate institution; instead it was a graduate school. Combined, the Harvard Business School’s MBA graduates sold almost $300 million in stock over the third quarter. HBS’s list of sellers was led by William McKiernan who recently oversaw the sale of the company he founded, CyberSource Corp, to credit card giant Visa (V). Another HBS top seller is Google (GOOG) board member John Doerr who reported selling 132,215 shares of Google on September 24, 2010. Vivek Ranadiv, who is the founder and CEO of TIBCO (TIBX), netted more than $37 million by selling off shares of TIBX. Other graduate business schools with significant selling activity were the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Columbia Business School, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon, Xavier University, George Washington University and Dartmouth’s Tuck School. J3 Donor Watch provides its reports and analyses to the development offices and prospect research teams at many leading colleges, universities and non-profits. Donor Watch’s unique and robust set of research tools empower fund raisers to manage their relationships with top and high potential donors. Donor Watch monitors the stock holdings of top donors and alums by using SEC filings and provides its users with best-in-class analyses, filters and alerts, empowering fundraisers to focus on the big picture. For more information about Donor Watch or the report, please visit Donor Watch’s Website.

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