FACULTY SUPPORT

Financing Finance

Since the spring of 2003, Professor James Gatti of the UVM School of Business Administration has taken students in his Honors Seminar in Finance on a trip they'll never forget: an excursion into the inner circle of the investment banking community for a rigorous immersion in the world of high finance.

The honors seminar draws on the experience of UVM alumni who have found their way to the executive suites of some of the largest banking and investment firms in the world. Gatti takes his students on several trips each year to meet with the alumni at their respective institutions to acclimate them to the role and methods of the investment analyst. At the end of the semester they're given a real-world investment decision to analyze and put on the "hot seat" to defend their analyses and recommendations before a panel of the seasoned investment pros.

"We spent three intense months analyzing companies, learning about debt markets and risk assessment, and then putting it all together in our presentation," says James Keller, Jr., '03, an analyst with the hedge fund Thermopolis Partners LLC, based in Jackson, Wyoming. "It was an amazing experience."

Keller's parents, James R. Keller, Sr. '72 and his wife Judith were also impressed — enough so that they made a $2.3 million Campaign gift to create the Keller Family Fund for Honors Preparation in Finance to endow Professor Gatti's Honors Seminar in Finance and expand the activities of the student-run Finance and Investment Club.

The senior Keller credits UVM for providing solid preparation for his own career — "I've always looked at UVM as a kind of launching point," he says. Keller recently retired after spending more than 30 years as an executive with Weyerhaeuser Company. He says he and Judith were very impressed by the quality of the curriculum and facilities available to their son and excited at the direction UVM is taking. "We wanted to be able to contribute to its future success with something that will make the student experience even richer," he says.

"Enormously beneficial" is how Professor Gatti describers the Kellers' gift. "Without this gift, it's fair to say that the Honors Seminar would not exist as it does today. This is the kind of academic luxury we simply wouldn't be able to afford without alumni support."

Gatti says the endowment ensures that he is able to conduct the Honors Seminar the way it will be most beneficial to the students, and that feedback from graduates of the program indicates they believe the experience helped them in launching their careers. "Some students tell us that their first job was actually easier than the honors experience," he says. "My hope is that as students look back on their experience and its impact on their careers, they'll want to support us as well."