Curriculum Vitae

My resume includes personal details, employment history, leadership, service, academic achievements, awards, projects, skills and extracurricular activities.

Personal details

• Bachelor of Engineering (Honours, Engineering Science); GPA 8.17, First Class

• Bachelor of Commerce (Honours, Finance); GPA 8.25, First Class

• University of Auckland (Jan 15 - Jan 22)

• Hutt International Boys’ School, NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3 with Excellence

• Email: [email protected]

• Website: connormcdowall.com

• Phone: +64 27 892 3821 (NZ)

• Citizenship: Canada, New Zealand

Employment history

Zeil Technology Services Limited | Data Scientist

Jan 24 - Present (Full-Time)

• Lead data pipeline and warehouse architecture. I manage our extract, load, and transform processes to transfer transactional data into new schemas for analysis conducive to marketing and commercial purposes using various technologies including PostgreSQL, DBT, Amazon Web Services, and Google Big Query.

• Lead the end-to-end development of a career advisor in our upcoming web application, incorporating large language models and retrieval-augmented generation using Google’s Vertex AI, AWS Infrastructure, Docker, Flask, & Flutter.

• Contribute to the incremental improvement of our job-matching algorithm using a recommendation engine to match candidates with job listings that best align with their experience and preferences.

• Present feedback on new feature performance and application engagement to our Senior Leadership Team.

MFO Limited | Investment Analyst

Mar 22 - Dec 23 (Full-Time)

• Multi-Strategy Single Family Office actively investing in Venture Capital, Private Equity, Public Markets, & Real Estate.

• Led investment due diligence, presenting recommendations to our investment committee. Our analysis involved qualitatively and quantitatively assessing an investment’s product and product-market fit, addressable and obtainable market, founder capabilities, technology risk, competitive moats, financial performance, liquidity risks, and portfolio considerations. Our primary mandate was software, hardware, and deep technology in venture capital, while industry- agnostic in other asset classes.

• Built quantitative and financial models to analyze macroeconomic indicators, yield curves, wholesale interest rates, portfolio composition, sector exposure, and vesting schedules for employee stock ownership plans.

• Actively managed our well-diversified equity portfolio, which involved conducting equity research, rebalancing, and executing trades across multiple positions.

• Completed technical and commercial due diligence on residential and commercial real estate developments, including analyzing commercial leases, modelling development scenarios, forecasting project finances, and assuring home automation and electrical system quality.

Aurecon New Zealand | Consultant - Future Energy

Sep 21 - Dec 21 (Part-Time)

• Completed commercial and technical due diligence to inform renewable energy and infrastructure investment. I built financial models, developed Python scripts for analytical purposes, and used geographic information systems.

ExxonMobil Australia | Engineer - Upstream Commercial

Nov 19 - Feb 20 (Internship)

• Built an Excel-based optimization model to forecast the production capabilities of ExxonMobil’s ~$3B (AUD) share of the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture assets. The model analyzed the gas volumes available for sale, informed ExxonMobil’s Victorian gas marketing strategy, and considered separate gas balancing agreements.

• Built an Excel-based optimization model to optimize ExxonMobil’s sales strategy from an onshore storage facility. The model compares different sales strategies, informs how to maximize gas revenue, and ensures ExxonMobil meet their gas storage contractual obligations.

• Completed Heli-Sea, Onshore, Offshore, and Fire Fighting training.

Deloitte New Zealand | Analyst - Management Consulting

Nov 18 - Feb 19 (Internship)

• Built Excel-based models and completed data analysis to monitor fixed asset schedules, assess financial performance from commercial real estate investments, and develop a new operating model to improve education equity for various public sector clients.

Deloitte New Zealand | Analyst - Corporate Finance

Nov 17 - Feb 18 (Internship)

• Prepared two proposals valuing domestic and international education’s impact on the Aotearoa New Zealand economy, developed an operating cost model to forecast construction costs for community housing providers, and assessed the financial risk of a critical supplier for a public sector client.

Fletcher Building | Engineering Assistant

Nov 16 - Feb 17 (Internship)

• Managed contracting teams and conducted firestopping, commissioning and quality control activities for the $1.4B (NZD) Waterview Connection project, contributing to reducing traffic congestion.

Leadership & service

Co-Chairperson | Kupe Leadership Scholarship Alumni Committee

Jan 23 - Present

• Co-chair the Kupe Leadership Scholarship Alumni Committee, leading a team of 8-20 alumni to build a leadership program developing world-class leaders, delivering on four strategic pillars: Continuous Learning, Giving Back, Community Building, and Global Acting. I sit on our scholarship’s advisory board, build relationships with Aotearoa New Zealand’s leaders across various industries, and represent the scholarship when meeting benefactors.

Kupe Leadership Scholarship

Jan 21 - Present

• Recognized as one of 16 Kupe Leadership Scholars. The scholarship aims to develop the most influential of the next generation of leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand. Scholars are exceptional young people from all disciplines who strongly desire to serve and address the most pressing issues facing Aotearoa New Zealand.

Co-President | University of Auckland Investment Club

Jan 20 - Dec 20

• Co-led a team of 17 who ran investing and finance initiatives for 400 undergraduate students. I managed strategic partnerships, created three new competitions focusing on equity valuation, venture capital, and M&A strategy, created our Women Engagement Initiative, and oversaw the Investment Committee managing our NZD 25,000 investment fund.

**Student Representative | Dean’s Executive Committee - Faculty of Engineering

Jun 18 - Dec 19

• Represented the entire student body of approximately 4,000 undergraduate students on the Dean’s Executive Committee. I actively contributed to our faculty’s commercial and strategic interests, including our long-term strategy, capital expansion, innovation programs, and equity initiatives.

Sir Colin Maiden Scholar | Dean’s Leadership Program - Faculty of Engineering

Jun 17 - Dec 17

• Selected as one of 30 undergraduate engineering students for collective mentorship and leadership training from several of Aotearoa New Zealand’s top engineering minds, exploring an engineer’s role in society and responsibility in leading interdisciplinary teams to solve complex issues.

Academic achievements & awards

Rhodes Scholarship Interview

Sep 21

• Selected to interview for the New Zealand constituency.

First in Course Award | FINANCE 702: Governance Issues in Finance

Jun 21

• Top student; examined the role of information, knowledge, incentives, and measurement in contracting, organizational design, and governance of economic transactions in property rights, transaction cost economics, agency, and stewardship theories.

Dean’s Honour List | University of Auckland Faculty of Engineering

Nov 20

• Received recognition for demonstrating excellence in academic performance by being in the top 5% or attaining a GPA of over 8.25 in Part IV Engineering.

First in Course Award | ECON 372: Energy and Environmental Economics

Dec 19

• Top student; examined economics related to resource management, oil markets, climate change, and energy policy.

**Blues Award for Innovation | University of Auckland

May 20

• Recognized for outstanding innovation achievement as a Case Program team member, developing branding and growth strategies for Line Mobile and Sea Thailand. We placed third globally against 20 competitors at Chulalongkorn University’s 2019 International Business Case Competition in Koh Samui, Thailand. I led our strategy implementation and financing.

**Finalist | University of Auckland EY Business Student of the Year

May 21

• Recognised as one of the top seven University of Auckland Undergraduate Business School Students who display excellence in academic performance, communication skills, community service, extra-curricular activities, and knowledge of world issues.

INFINZ Scholarship | INFINZ

Jun 19

• Selected as one of twelve students across New Zealand to attend the INFINZ Conference and meet the INFINZ board.

First in Course Award | Finance 781: Financial Machine Learning

Jun 19

• Top student; examined several machine learning algorithms and their use in financial contexts.

3rd Place | Citi Global Markets Challenge

Jun 19

• Led our team’s investment strategy and asset selection, placing third when competing against 500 teams across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. The competition involved constructing a hypothetical AUD 500m portfolio across equities, fixed income, foreign currency, and commodities to outperform a provided benchmark. Proposed geopolitical and macroeconomic events served as catalysts to realize returns.

3rd Place | CFA Society New Zealand Research Challenge

Jun 18 - Oct 18

• Represented the University of Auckland in a team of five, placing third nationally against eight teams. The competition required researching the publicly listed Comvita (NZX: CVT), forecasting their share price and presenting a recommendation. I led the development of our team’s investment thesis and financial valuation.

Projects & skills

Neural Networks for Long-Short Equity Trading Strategies

Jun 21 - Jan 22

• Developed novel methods embedding finance-specific loss functions in neural network architecture to assess the ability to outperform standard configurations, when predicting alpha in long-short equity investment strategies, using TensorFlow, Google Cloud Platform, NVIDIA’s CUDA, MLOps, & Git.

Scalable Solutions for Open-Source Energy Modelling Systems

Jan 20 - Oct 20

• Explored novel methods for modelling energy systems to inform policy and investment in sustainable technologies with Python and GAMS.

Prototype Wind Turbine

Jun 18 - Nov 18

• Led a team of four designing, building, and testing a scale wind turbine operating at 140 rpm using mathematical optimization, simulation, and computer-aided design.

Transhipment Network Model

Jun 18

• Built a linear optimisation model using AMPL to model fruit produce flows from producers to packhouses to markets. The model minimises packaging and transportation costs across 10 different demand forecasts.

Technical Skills

• Developed working proficiency in various technologies and services. These include Python, PostgreSQL, Typescript, C++, MATLAB, VBA, AMPL, ETL, Git, Docker, Google Cloud Platform, and Amazon Web Services.

Mathematical Modelling

• Developed skills in modelling ordinary & partial differential equation modelling, heuristics, numerical analysis, mathematical optimization, linear algebra, & tensor calculus.

Extra-curriculars

Ironman Triathlon

Jan 19 - Dec 22

• Completed the Tauranga Half 2019, Ironman New Zealand 2019, Ironman 70.3 Sunshine Coast 2019, and Ironman 70.3 New Zealand 2022. In Ironman New Zealand 2019, I was among 30 in the 18-24 age group to complete 4km swim, 180km bike and 42km run.

Senior Analyst | University of Auckland Investment Club

Jun 19 - Dec 19

• Pitched stocks, valued equities and engaged in weekly discussions about companies, industries, and markets. I prepared investment analysis on, and invested in, Spark New Zealand (NZE: SPK) and Sea Limited (NYSE: SE).

University of Auckland Case Programme

Jun 17 - Dec 21

• Represented the University of Auckland at Regional, National, and International Case Competitions. I prepare analysis on a case company’s problems and propose solutions. I competed in Christchurch, New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; and Koh Samui, Thailand.