Progress Magazine Annual Report 2011 - Eller College of ...

uilding on a
strong reputation
Rick Sias joins
eller as head of
finance department
‘
Finance is an easy
subject to teach
because it’s so
exciting and dynamic.
I can’t think of
another major
academic field that
has entire channels
devoted to its coverage.
Finance is covered
in the media all
the time and has
an impact on
everything we do –
I want my students
to care about the
subject. That’s
when learning is
most effective.
‘
The Eller College is pleased
to welcome professor Rick
Sias, first holder of the
Tyler Family Endowed
Chair in Finance, as the
newly-appointed head of
the finance department.
Sias is a research leader
whose oft-cited work
centers on the behavior of
institutional investors and
their effect on security
prices and markets. He
comes to the University of
Arizona from Washington
State University (WSU),
where he founded,
designed, and ran a
program through which
undergraduate and MBA
students managed more
than $1 million of the
university’s endowment
in a large cap domestic
equity portfolio. Sias
estimates that some 500
students participated in
the program over the ten
years that he ran it.
Sias joined WSU in 1992,
after completing his
doctoral studies at the
University of Texas at Austin.
During his time at WSU,
he won numerous awards
for both his teaching and
research. He created a
lecture series that brought
game-changing financial
and economic thinkers —
including four Nobel
Laureates — to campus,
where they connected
with students, faculty,
and community members.
He also managed a program
designed to take the school’s
best finance students to
New York, where they
visited firms and networked
with WSU alumni working
on Wall Street.
“The strong educational and
scholarly reputation of the
Eller College was what drew
me to the UA,” he said, “but
the department itself was
the most exciting thing
to me — the faculty here is
so strong, and there
is so much potential for
future growth.”
eller progress n fall 2011 7