Baylor Dedicates Southwest Securities Financial Markets Center
Baylor University officially dedicated the Southwest Securities Financial Markets Center, a world-class investment facility in the Hankamer School of Business, during a ceremony Jan. 12 on the Baylor campus.
The center will allow graduate students and senior finance majors hands-on learning in the truest sense of the word as they manage one of the largest student-run portfolios in the nation - currently worth $6 million - from the new facility.
The opening of the Southwest Securities Financial Markets Center marks the beginning of a new era in the finance program at the Baylor business school. The Portfolio Practicum class, which started in 2001, will be elevated to a new level with this state-of-the-art financial center. The center is equipped with leading edge technology replicating the equipment found in the nation's top investment firms and financial institutions.
"We now have one of the top facilities of this kind in the country," said Brian Bruce, the main instructor of the Portfolio Practicum class that manages the fund. Bruce is also director and Head of Equity Investments for PanAgora Asset Management.
"Now the students have access to real time financial data that they wouldn't have otherwise. With access to sophisticated tools, the students can function like any institutional investment manager," Bruce said. "That means these students will be completely ready to step into a portfolio management position upon graduation."
Participating in the dedication ceremony were Baylor President Robert B. Sloan Jr.; Dr. Terry Maness, dean of the Hankamer School of Business; Dr. J.T. Rose, chair of the department of finance, insurance and real estate; Alan Roseman, a graduate student in accounting from Tyler; Susan Etheredge, managing director of the center; and Dr. Bill Reichenstein, professor of investments. Also attending were major donors Don and Ruth Buchholz and Philip M. Dorr.
"This new facility, coupled with the Philip M. Dorr and Alumni Endowed Investment Fund, is a very mission-driven program," Maness said. "Our mission calls for us to engage students in active learning - this program really does that. You can read about it and you can write papers, but until you are actually managing real money and being held accountable for it - there's just no comparison."
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Baylor Business graduates are individuals with world-class business skills, including critical behavioral and decision making skills that inspire trust and confidence on the part of employers and their customers. In addition to state-of-the-art skill development in the functional areas of business - accounting, finance, marketing, information technology, management, economics and others - Baylor Business students develop "ethics skills" that yield credibility and true leadership potential in today's organizations. Visit the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University for more information.