Professional Affairs Committee
The Professional Affairs Committee (PA), is the professional development and mentorship arm of the Undergraduate Economics Association. PA is dedicated to educating and organizing student professional development through its weekly workshops, committee socials, and networking info-sessions. Committee members improve their recruiting skills, resumes, public speaking through the heavily curated PA curriculum and weekly workshops. Additionally, members learn about a myriad of different industries--consulting, banking, startups and Big Tech--and their respective recruiting strategies.
A large part of the PA committee is its focus on community development and mentorship. All committee members are paired with UEA officers and alumni for weekly coffee chats, designed to improve the committee member's resume/interview prep and networking skills.
The PA committee organizes socials to develop a strong community within UEA. At the end of the semester, all committee members are invited to compete in the UEA case competition. Applying to the PA committee is a great first step towards trying to improve one's industry knowledge, learn about networking, and make fulfilling relationships with other members and the UEA committee as a whole.
Meet the Directors
These are the Directors of the Professional Affairs Committee for Fall 2025.
Professional Affairs Director
Stephan Siyambalapitiya
Stephan Siyambalapitiya is a Junior majoring in Economics and Data Science.
Currently serving as an Investment Banking Analyst Intern at Empire Investment Bank, Stephan specializes in M&A, valuations, and capital raises. His professional track record includes building comprehensive valuation models for transactions ranging from $60M to $250M and conducting deep-dive market analysis across global metals markets valued at over $4.5B. He is adept at benchmarking public companies and precedent transactions to refine valuation ranges, as well as supporting buy-side target screening for significant strategic expansion plans.
Beyond his work in investment banking, Stephan is a FinTech Startup Consultant at Ascend Consulting Group and previously gained valuable experience as a Summer Analyst at Andersen. On campus, he gives back to the university community as a Financial Peer Advisor, where he assists fellow students in navigating their financial planning and resources.
