It's Not Just About the Numbers

"Hobart seemed to want me to attend there, and one of the ways they showed that was with an offer of some financial support," Insull says. "I was very grateful for that." He says he chose Hobart because he wanted a small school. "I wanted to be away from home but not so far away I was going to have to get onto an airplane. And, certainly, I was taken by the beauty of the campus. Hobart checked a lot of the boxes, and when they were able to offer a scholarship, that sweetened it."

Insull wasted little time in taking advantage of the opportunity. He soon met the professors whose teachings would help propel his professional life and the woman who would share his personal life.

Among the professors in question was Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Computer Science Kevin Mitchell. "I think I took pretty much every course he taught," Insull says. "That fueled my interest in math." That interest, plus classes with Professor of Economics Bill Waller and Professor Emeritus of Economics Patrick McGuire L.H.D. '12, led Insull to a master's degree in business administration from New York University and a career in finance. He is now the chief investment officer for Nassau Global Credit, part of the Nassau Financial Group.

Insull says he was "only OK" in math in high school but once exposed to the subject in Mitchell's classes, "I spent a lot more time on it than I thought I would." Insull says his coursework left him "very well prepared" for graduate school and put him on "a level playing field" at the start of his finance career, when he found himself in a training program with "all kinds of kids from other schools."

But HWS wasn't all about numbers for Insull. Far from it. He has "a very special memory" of an art class he took with Professor Emerita of Art Elena Ciletti and discovered, as time went on, the true meaning of the liberal arts. "One of the things my education taught me is, whether it's a janitor or a CEO, you should be just as comfortable speaking with either one," Insull says.

As if that weren't enough, he met a woman from San Francisco named Brenda Stanny Insull '88 at — where else? — the Twin Oaks. They've been married 32 years. Brenda has spent her career in finance, too. Like her husband, she has an MBA from NYU and is currently an executive director at Mizuho Americas, part of the multinational Japanese bank.

The Insulls have two sons, Trent and Reed, both employed in the New York financial world. They are also longtime residents of Brooklyn — Insull moved there after he graduated from HWS and never left — and hosted, with former HWS Trustee Michael Gantcher '92, P'27, and his wife, Christina Gantcher P'27, a fundraiser for HWS at the Heights Casino in Brooklyn in 2024. Billy Gantcher '27 is a junior at HWS.

The Insulls met the Gantchers through the squash program at Heights, and Insull says the couples "have become very good friends." Such friendships are another benefit that the Insulls, like many other alumni, continue to reap from their HWS experience.

"I made wonderful friends there," Insull says, "and I continue to be close with the guys I went to college with. A bunch of us just got together recently in Connecticut. We spent a Saturday up there listening to music at a microbrewery. It's a network and a community."

To a place that has given the Insulls so much in life, they continue to give back, in both time and money. "It's very important for Hobart and William Smith to be able to offer financial incentives to attract a high caliber of student," Insull says. "They have to be able to compete." That means not just using financial incentives to attract the best possible students but "to weather the storms that inevitably come along," Insull says. "I was fortunate to benefit from generous alums when I was there, so we're happy to do what we can."