Wall Street Comes To Baylor

May 14, 2003

by Cynthia J. Jackson

A four-zone digital wall clock ticks away as investment transactions span from Asia to Australia and from Europe to the United States. Bloomberg and Reuters financial data flash across large flat-screen panels. An 8-foot, scrolling tri-color ticker runs rampant with up-to-the-minute stock values.
What may appear to describe the investment centers in America's top asset management firms also depicts the Capital Markets Investment Center planned for Baylor's Hankamer School of Business. Fall 2003 will mark the beginning of a new era in Hankamer's finance program as the portfolio practicum class will be taken to a new level with the state-of-the-art investment center. Equipped with leading-edge technology replicating the equipment found in the nation's top investment firms, Hankamer's investment center will allow hands-on learning for graduate students and senior finance majors in the truest sense of the word -- a portfolio worth more than $1 million will be managed from the center.
"The Phil Dorr Endowed Investment Fund is a very mission-driven program," Dean Terry 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."
Coupled with the student-managed Phil Dorr Endowed Investment Fund, the new investment center will provide a full immersion into the world of investment management. Brian Bruce, director of Global Investments at PanAgora Asset Management in Boston, is the primary instructor of the course. Dr. Bill Reichenstein, professor of finance and holder of The Pat and Thomas R. Powers Chair of Investment Management, is the on-campus co-teacher.
"This course has a rigorous framework... but it is essential for first-hand knowledge of the industry," Reichenstein said.
In addition to instruction by Bruce and Reichenstein, experts in stock picking and asset allocation, respectively, the students also benefit from the knowledge shared by many other industry leaders. The class's list of investment advisors reads like a Who's Who of Wall Street, and outside presentations by representatives from top investment firms, like Goldman-Sachs, are part of the curriculum.
As fall 2003 approaches quickly, funding for the investment center is beginning to fall into place. Construction may begin as early as June, but several capital opportunities are still available.
For more information, contact Maness at 254-710-3411. For more information about the Hankamer School of Business visit http://business.baylor.edu.