Richard M. Burridge, founder and CEO of the Burridge Group LLC in Chicago, has given the CU-Boulder College of Business and Administration $1.5 million to establish the Center for Securities Analysis and Valuation.
By endowing the Center, Burridge, a 1951 graduate of the college and a member of the Business Advisory Council, creates a lasting legacy of his 50 successful years in the investment world.
The endowment will benefit both finance faculty and students by supporting research on the analysis and valuation of financial securities. The center will initiate regular conferences and forums involving investment management professionals, students and faculty to discuss investment management issues. It also will provide the professional community with current data and information.
This endowment really puts us in a new league said Ron Melicher, finance division chair. The partnership between the college and the Burridge Center will bring industry expertise to students and faculty and innovative research projects to the growing local investment community.
Professionals will be able to discuss financial anomalies with academics and therefore may be able to help shape the research we conduct, Melicher said.
Business Dean Larry Singell says CU-Boulder is an excellent location for such a center considering the number of securities and investment firms in the area.
The center will allow us to link the local investment community and our faculty and students to the major centers in the nation and the world, Singell said.
Burridge said that in the last 10 years, academic research in the finance area has become more and more relevant for practitioners. I wanted to see this trend continue or accelerate, he said.
Burridge envisions the center taking on research projects that analyze performance in stock classes, for example. We can quickly get the numbers now. What I want to know is why certain stocks or bonds are achieving such heights or what spurs cycles, he said.
Melicher said that a successful center may also provide the basis for developing other funding initiatives such as a securities simulation trading laboratory for finance students.
Two major dilemmas facing business schools in the area of finance are providing compensation levels that attract and retain faculty who are on the leading edge of finance theory and practice, and keeping them connected with the major players in financial markets. The center helps us accomplish both of those goals, Singell said.
A board of leading investment professionals and academics will oversee the centers activities. In addition to a yet-to-be-named director, some junior finance division faculty will be named Burridge Fellows and receive stipends for their involvement with the center.
Richard Dick Burridge worked for 17 years at the Northern Trust Co. in Chicago, where he eventually became senior vice president. He went on to become the treasurer and manager of endowment assets of the University of Chicago. He then spent 12 years with Alliance Capital Management Corp. and started his own firm, the Burridge Group LLC, in 1986.