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In 2001,
two undergraduate finance majors, Kevin Martins and Joon Park, visited Ray
Tierney, a Villanova alumnus at Morgan Stanley in New York City. Mr. Tierney sat
them down at a trading station at Morgan Stanley and they watched the traders do
their work for a morning. That afternoon, they were sent over to see the finance
lab/trading floor at Baruch College. They came away from that day smitten with
the idea that Villanova needed a trading room and a student managed investment
fund.
In the summer of 2003, Villanova School of Business professors Michael Pagano and David
Nawrocki started to work on a proposal for an academic center of excellence that
would build a trading room, make curriculum changes, and maintain a student
managed investment fund. This center became the Institute for Research in
Advanced Financial Technology (IRAFT) in November 2003.
Finance
Department Chairperson Andrea DeMaskey spearheaded curriculum changes as IRAFT’s
pioneers proposed a new accounting minor for finance majors, a new
finance-economics major in conjunction with the economics department, and a new
five-year Master of Science in Finance program. The new M.S. in Finance program
welcomed its first students in May 2005 and graduated its first class in May 2006.
In
January 2004, IRAFT initiated the first student-managed fund at the Villanova
School of Business, the Arnone-Lerer Socially Responsible Investment Fund.
Villanova University Information Technologies joined the IRAFT group so it was
able to finalize ideas for the Applied Finance Lab.
In
January 2005, IRAFT began its second student managed fund, the George Coleman
Fund. Currently 40 students are involved in the management of the two IRAFT
funds. The Villanova Equity Society has over 80 student members and
began the management of the two Christopher Haley Student
Managed Investment Funds during the 2006-2007 academic year.
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