Feature Story: Ra Kpedi Follows the Numbers off the Court
10/30/2023 10:50:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Purdue Fort Wayne men’s basketball squad is immersed in intense preparation for the 2023-24 season, as the Mastodon student-athletes are training daily in the weight room and on the court to increase their chances of future success.
A year ago, former Mastodon player Ra Kpedi was doing the same, but he was also preparing himself for achievement off the court, which he has found this autumn as a financial analyst for Kittle Property Group in Indianapolis.
“The number one thing about Ra,” Fort Wayne businessman Anthony Juliano explained of his perspective on Kpedi, “was just his commitment to bettering himself.”
In the spring of 2022, Kpedi had recently wrapped up his fifth season of college basketball, and he was looking at a future that, perhaps, involved more of his time devoted to numbers on a spreadsheet, as opposed to a scoreboard.
“It evolved for me in college,” Kpedi said of his interest in the world of finance, “to understand the importance of financial literacy. Things like compound interest (and) those types of concepts.”
Kpedi spoke often with veteran Mastodon coach Jon Coffman, who had worked in the financial services industry prior to entering the coaching profession. Those discussions led Coffman to believe it would be advantageous for Kpedi to spend another year, not just helping the Mastodon basketball team, but also helping himself from a business standpoint.
“The first thing that I talked about,” Coffman recalled, “was don’t be in a rush to grow up. Let’s enjoy all this hard work (academically and athletically).
“You are part of a (basketball) program that you are enjoying. You are enjoying the players, and you are enjoying playing to your potential now.”
Coffman wasn’t being self-serving with his advice because he didn’t limit his thoughts to the 2022-23 season. He also counseled Kpedi on how to put himself in a position to further his career decades from now.
“The second piece of that was professional,” Coffman continued. “He had finished off his undergraduate (work) in economics and finance. He had his (master’s in business administration), and he was out of educational (opportunities).”
Coffman asked Kpedi, as he does all his players in these types of discussions, what he wanted to do, and Kpedi replied that he wanted to work as an equity analyst.
“He was very target-specific,” Coffman said. “I have the luxury of having worked in finance and knew about different positions out there.
“Ra didn’t understand a number of the different opportunities that could also fit.”
Coffman suggested that Kpedi contemplate playing one more season while working an internship in finance that could “expose him through an internship before he committed to a (full-time job).”
“It was a combination of both (basketball and business),” Kpedi said of his decision to return for one more year.
Kpedi spent time working with First Merchants Bank in Fort Wayne, ironically, under Market President Jamie Matthews, who had spent a large part of his career coaching basketball at Manchester University, Saginaw Valley State University, and Eastern Washington University, before doing the opposite of Coffman and transitioning out of coaching instead of into it.
“Ra worked with a primary focus on our private wealth side of our bank,” Matthews explained.
That work associated Kpedi with “high net worth individuals,” according to Matthews, and gave him “a little bit of analytical” exposure, as well.
Matthews explained that Kpedi also worked in the “commercial side of our bank.”
The latter experience led to his current full-time position with Kittle Group, which would not have been something that Kpedi explored having not had that initial conversation with Coffman.
“Ra worked on the equity side (of the industry) during the summer,” Coffman explained, “and then worked on the debt side, an area that he didn’t really have a full grasp of going into it, and really enjoyed that part.
“He realized, as he was working on some deals and research, that he really enjoyed real estate and doing the analysis of real estate. He really set the table for his career, all under our bill.”
In addition to expanding his knowledge of commercial real estate, Kpedi was building a network of professional contacts, which is where Juliano, who is the General Manager and Vice-President for Asher Agency in Fort Wayne, fits into Kpedi’s story.
One of the unique aspects of Mastodon basketball is the Community Mentor Program, which involves each student-athlete developing a relationship with a mentor within the Fort Wayne community for guidance both professionally and personally.
Juliano got to know Kpedi through this program and the young man left a lasting impression on his mentor.
“We have met and stayed in touch about his career aspirations,” Juliano said. “I might get him connected to folks who can help him with where he wants to go and provide some perspective on how he might proceed in working towards his goals, answer his questions, and just be a sounding board for some of the things that he was thinking about.”
All of this experience, as well as the multitude of relationships that he formed throughout his time at Purdue Fort Wayne, has formed a foundation to launch Kpedi into a successful career and life, which can often be an afterthought in the minds of many college basketball fans.
“I was twisting his arm to delay an inevitable career (in finance) for another year (of basketball professionally),” Coffman said. “Go live in another culture and play professionally overseas like 23 (former Mastodons) have done.
“But I couldn’t twist hard enough on that. Ra was ready after six years of college basketball to move on and work as an analyst for a commercial real estate firm.”
