Investment Industry Leaders Help Launch New UO Securities Analysis Center

Business Wire, Oct 18, 2007

Program Will Train Students for Jobs and Fuel Oregon Economy

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Six alumni of the University of Oregon Lundquist College of Business who went on to great success in the investment industry are now investing their own money in future business graduates.

The six are contributing a total of $2.5 million to help launch the UO's new Securities Analysis Center, which will educate students for careers in the investment industry.

"This new center will be one of only a handful of such programs in the country and will provide a unique focus," said UO President Dave Frohnmayer in a Portland announcement of the donations that will launch the new M.B.A. specialization in Fall 2008. "The program's graduates will also help fuel the growing investment industry in Oregon."

The six initial donors to the program are Ron Sauer, a 1980 UO graduate in finance, and president of Mazama Capital Management in Portland; James Rippey, a 1953 UO graduate in business administration, and founder and retired president of Columbia Management Group in Portland; Eli Morgan, who attended the UO College of Business until 1958 and is chairman and CEO of 2030 Investors LLC in Portland; Robert Jesenik, a 1980 UO graduate in accounting, and CEO of Aequitas Capital Management in Lake Oswego; Chuck Lillis of Castle Rock, Colo., who earned his doctorate from the UO in 1972, and is co-founder and principal of LoneTree Partners, a private equity investing group, and a managing partner of Castle Pines Capital; and Eric Sorensen, who earned his doctorate from the UO in 1977, and is CEO of PanAgora Asset Management in Boston.

"These donors are making a smart investment in the growth of Oregon's economy and in the futures of hundreds of young people," Frohnmayer said.

"There are three things that will make our program unique," said Lundquist College of Business Dean James Bean. "One, a balance between finance and accounting courses; two, students will learn about a wide variety of investment vehicles, not just stocks and bonds; and three, our program will take advantage of the UO's close ties to Pacific Rim countries by highlighting the investment landscape in Asian countries."

Bean said the only other program in the country that resembles the UO's is the M.B.A. program in applied security analysis at the University of Wisconsin.

Sauer, whose Mazama Capital Management in Portland is one of the largest institutional growth stock portfolio management firms in the U.S., says the new center will help UO business graduates get top jobs around the country and will provide better trained employees for Oregon companies. "If these students stay in the Northwest, they're more likely to start other money management firms, and this will be good for the Oregon economy," Sauer said.

Rippey, the co-founder and former president of Columbia Management Company and Columbia Trust Company in Portland, where Oregon's first mutual fund was established, said the UO Securities Analysis Center "will further advance Portland's reputation for money management, and I'm pleased to support the college's efforts in this regard because it's the kind of business that is perfect for Oregon. It's non-polluting. It's high income, and you can have clients all over the world."

Bean said that eventually the Securities Analysis Center will serve about 150 students a year, including about 30 graduate students. In addition to new courses, the program will provide experiential learning opportunities such as managing real portfolios and student internships with companies in the industry.

The $2.5 million in gifts announced Thursday will fund start-up costs of the new center, such as hiring a director. Bean said that eventually he hopes to raise enough money to fund a $15 million endowment to support the center.

"It's great for the students. It's great for the University of Oregon, and it's great for the state," said Sauer of the new center. "I'm willing to contribute what I can to make it a quality situation. We anticipate that, once the SAC is launched in the fall of 2008, several other successful Duck investment professionals, as well as outside professionals throughout the world, will become enthusiastic about the center."

The Securities Analysis Center is one of four Centers for Excellence in the Lundquist College of Business. The others are Sports Business, Technology Innovation/Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Supply Chain Management.

The gifts to the Securities Analysis Center count toward Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives, the UO's $600 million fundraising campaign. With a recent $74.5 million gift from philanthropist Lorry Lokey for the sciences and other programs and a $100 million gift from Phil and Penny Knight for Duck athletics, the campaign has shot past the goal and now stands at $717.5 million. Frohnmayer says the campaign will continue until its scheduled end in 2008 so the university can achieve all the priorities set at the beginning of the fundraising effort.

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