Rochelle Ballard

Rochelle Ballard is a full-time MBA student at Columbia Business School (Class of 2013), concentrating in Real Estate and Entrepreneurship. She was one of two recipients of the Real Estate Circle Fellowship and is also a Robert A. Toigo Fellow.

Rochelle began her career as an Analyst in the Sales & Trading program at UBS Investment Bank. She spent four years in the Real Estate Securitizations group, where she worked on one of the firm's top Institutional Sales teams and built a client base that included top-tier hedge funds, money managers and insurance companies. She spent nearly two years at Braver Stern Securities, a boutique trading firm, where she also covered institutional clients investing in residential and commercial mortgage backed securities. Most recently, Rochelle completed a pre-MBA internship at CB Richard Ellis, where she worked on commercial property transactions with the firm’s top Investment Sales team.

Rochelle graduated cum laude from Georgetown University in 2005. She received a B.S.B.A with a concentration in Finance and was awarded the Dean's Citation for service to the school.
Outside of her professional endeavors, Rochelle is passionate about singing and performing. She is the female lead singer for CBS’s school band, Juranimal, and has performed in benefit concerts to raise money for charitable causes. She also supports music education programs in New York as a member of the The Carnegie Hall Notables.

Rochelle's passion for mentoring stems from her own experience as a first-generation college student.  In addition to NYNY, she is an active member of the Luminary Circle at Step Up Women's Network, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing professional women and mentoring under-served teenage girls. She is a native of Maryland, where she was raised by her grandmother.