Spotlighted Student: Matthew Corbin '16

Prior to enrolling at Haverford College, economics major Matthew Corbin ’16 toured small liberal arts colleges on the east coast hoping to pair high caliber academics with an opportunity to play lacrosse—a sport he has played since he was 9 years old. While attending a summer recruiting camp at Dartmouth College, Haverford men’s lacrosse coach Colin Bathory approached Matt. Not long afterwards, Coach Bathory spoke with Matt over the phone to discuss his growing interest in the college and to setup a visit to campus. Matt did an over-night with the lacrosse team, learned about the community ethos and Honor Code, and then applied early decision.

During his first year at Haverford, Matt took an Introduction to Economics course with Professor Anne Preston. The course challenged him thoroughly, spurring him on to major in the discipline. Ultimately, the theoretical framework for problem solving matched up well with his interests. With his analytical mindset, Matt soon developed a penchant for hurdling obstacles and decoding challenges thrown at him. The economics department has helped him hone in on, and strengthen, his theoretical and empirical skills.

Economics courses and faculty that stand out to Matt include Neal Grabel’s ‘77 Financial and Managerial Accounting course, Shannon Mudd’s Microfinance course, and former faculty member Indradeep Ghosh’s Crises course. The philosophy class he took with Professor Ashok Gangadean also had a great impact on his academic experience by helping to broaden his perspective.

Matt has used internships to gain real world experience that compliments his studies in economics. The summer after his sophomore year he was awarded a Whitehead Internship to work for Ryan Frankel ‘06 at “VerbalizeIt”, a high-profile technology startup that aired on ABC’s Shark Tank. Although he was an “intern”, Matt felt much more like a full-time employee due to the nature of his entrepreneurial role. He developed skills in sourcing deals, nurturing client relationships, generating business leads, and communicating with executives from around the world.

The summer after his junior year Matt was awarded a second Whitehead Internship. He worked for Matthew Jennings ‘99 at DLL in Wayne, PA. DLL is a global vendor finance company offering a variety of financial solutions. Matt received thorough exposure to client relationship management, asset-based lending, marketing, new business development, and operations within the leasing industry.

Spending the fall semester of his junior year abroad at Denmark’s DIS (Danish Institute for Study Abroad) gave Matt the opportunity to take core courses on entrepreneurship. He was given the opportunity to build a mock business, develop a UX design for Volvo, and travel to various incubator programs across Northern Europe. During a visit to Dublin, Ireland, Matt had the chance to interact with an Irish accelerator program called NDRC where start-ups are given the office space and support needed to get a business off the ground. He wound up self-acquiring an internship with Prospr, a health technology startup in NDRC’s portfolio.

As a senior, Matt read an article last fall explaining how companies like Comcast had been increasing their subscription prices for Pay TV even though they were losing subscribers. Put in economic terms, companies like Comcast enjoy a high degree of market power. What he found interesting was that the majority of the subscriber atrophy could be attributed to the younger demographic—millennials—who choose to forgo traditional Pay TV subscriptions in favor of increasingly competitive, online substitutes. Substitutes, such as companies like Netflix, are disrupting the Pay TV industry through their online video streaming services.

The switch from a traditional Pay TV subscription to an online substitute is called “cutting-the-cord.” Matt’s thesis attempts to empirically measure the effects of disruptive competition—“cutting-the-cord”—on the market power of monopolistic, traditional Pay TV providers. Due to data limitations, no one has been able to conduct empirical research on this topic to date. He, however, is sourcing data from both public and private sources, enabling him to conduct an econometric analysis. He is hoping to contribute to furthering the qualitative conversations currently happening in this field by providing empirical, economic insights.

In addition to playing defense on the lacrosse team, Matt founded Power Posers, Haverford’s official yoga club. He also founded BIG (Business Initiatives Group), which hopes to cultivate and support a culture of entrepreneurship at Haverford. An important component of BIG is the creation of an alumni entrepreneurs’ network, which Matt is also spearheading. Matt envisions Haverford having startup competitions and an incubator program for students. Ultimately, he would love to see Haverford become synonymous with entrepreneurship.

After a few years of work experience Matt plans on acquiring an MBA.