ATLAS Fellows Welcomes 2022 Cohort; Secures Corporate Partnerships to Connect 2021 Cohort with External Internships

2022 Cohort includes 26 High School Seniors Across Chicago and New York City from Under-Resourced Communities

Inaugural 2021 Cohort to Intern with Leading Industry Partners Including Jefferies, RW Baird and Bridge Investment Group

CHICAGO, May 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ATLAS Fellows Inc. ("ATLAS Fellows" or "ATLAS"), a nonprofit seeking to transform the finance sector by opening doors for brilliant and under-resourced young people through providing access to life-changing careers, today announced it has welcomed 26 high school seniors to the second class of its career development program.

ATLAS is thrilled to admit the 2022 Cohort, consisting of highly talented and ambitious students with significant interests across both finance and STEM broadly, to build upon the success of its 2021 program, which hosted 17 students. In turn, the 2021 ATLAS Cohort will advance onto the next phase of the program's four-year curriculum through summer internships with leading industry corporate partners, including Jefferies, RW Baird and Bridge Investment Group, among others. Founding corporate partner Balyasny Asset Management will host the 2022 Cohort for their first summer within the program.

Launched in 2021 with support from Balyasny Asset Management, a multi-strategy global investment firm, ATLAS seeks to build a new generation of leaders across the financial sector. Through its programming, the nonprofit addresses four main barriers to a successful college, post-college, and career readiness journey by specifically concentrating on financial support, real-world experiences, professional guidance, and community for students throughout Chicago, New York City and Teton County, Wyoming.

"We are honored to welcome the program's second cohort of passionate, determined Fellows who demonstrate both the talent to succeed in a highly competitive field and the need for the resources provided by ATLAS. These barrier-breaking young people truly represent the new face of finance," commented Phoebe Anderson, executive director of ATLAS.

Overall, the ATLAS 2022 Cohort includes 10 students from Chicago and 16 from New York City, 73% of which identify as first-generation within their families to attend university, with an average household income of $51,152. Specifically, the Cohort includes students interested in pursuing a wide range of academic disciplines across the broader finance and STEM sectors, including entrepreneurship, statistics, computer science, and community building, 27% of which identify as Black, 31% Latino/a, 31% Asian, 15% Caucasian, and 4% as Other.

"Balyasny is proud to partner with ATLAS Fellows for its second summer as it continues to empower highly talented, accomplished individuals from all backgrounds reach their full potential. We look forward to welcoming the 2022 Cohort as interns across the firm to help them explore and achieve their goals within the financial sector—and to building a pathway for them to potentially bring their talent back to BAM after college graduation," commented Dmitry Balyasny, Co-Founder, Managing Partner, and the Chief Investment Officer of Balyasny Asset Management.

As executive search firm Solomon Page detailed in its 2021 hedge fund industry report on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, between July 2020 and June 2021, 65 percent of job changes consisted of white employees, while the proportion of Blacks (3%) and Hispanics (5%) were far lower than their representation in the general professional population. "We are grateful for the support of our corporate partners, who are willing to think creatively about recruiting and developing young and diverse talent. Together we will work to close this gap and provide the next generation access to the professional resources and mentorship opportunities they deserve to forge their own path, regardless of ethnicity, race, gender identity or socio-economic background," Ms. Anderson concluded.

Current members of the 2021 ATLAS Cohort are from New York, Chicago, and Teton County Wyoming, and attend top schools including Brown University, Cornell University, University of Chicago, Howard University, Notre Dame University, and University of Michigan among others.

About ATLAS Fellows

ATLAS was incubated at Balyasny Asset Management (BAM), a Chicago-based global investment manager with more than 1,000 employees. Central to BAM's culture is a collaborative environment to empower a diverse range of professionals to reach their highest potential. With this value in mind, BAM started ATLAS to enable driven students from a variety of backgrounds to seize the opportunity to access careers at industry leading business and finance firms. BAM has always been forward thinking, and ATLAS is no exception: it is the only organization to offer multi-year college scholarships, community support, and paid summer internships at top financial firms.

In Summer 2021, BAM hosted the inaugural cohort of ATLAS Fellows for their first paid summer internship.

About Balyasny Asset Management

Balyasny Asset Management ("BAM") was founded by Dmitry Balyasny, Scott Schroeder and Taylor O'Malley in 2001. What began as a single, small office in Chicago trading mostly long/short equity has grown into an institutional, multi-strategy global platform with 1,000 team members, 120 investment teams and 14 partners managing more than $12 billion in AUM.

Balyasny's investment platform spans across multiple strategies: Equities Long/Short, Macro, Equities Arbitrage, Credit, Commodities and Growth Equity. We leverage the collective knowledge and experience of our team members across industries, asset classes, regions, and markets to uncover profitable investment opportunities that deliver value to our clients.

SOURCE ATLAS Fellows