• Dean's Message
• Mission Statement
• In Memoriam
• Faculty Impact
• Undergraduate Program
• Faculty Partnerships
• Graduate Program
• Faculty Research
• Executive Education
• Cullman Series
• Faculty Innovation
• Research & Business Partnerships
• Intellectual Output
• Alumni & Pace Setters
• Giving Report
• Dean's Advisory Council
• Faculty & Staff

Faculty Innovation

Outperforming the Pros

The undergraduate and graduate students who take the Student Investment Management (SIM) class each quarter are hardly finance novices. Since 1990, Fisher College finance students have invested a portion of Ohio State’s endowment fund, the first group of American college students to officially manage a multimilliondollar university account. Under the administration of Professor Andrew Karolyi (top right), their strategy of obtaining high returns while maintaining desired risk levels is working well. The student-run portfolio has a current fund value of nearly $20 million and boasts an overall five-year return record better than the S&P 500. In the classroom, the SIM students act as security analysts and engage in group decisions that include monitoring, researching, interpreting and recommending stocks. Each quarter, they report to the university’s treasurer on the results of their investment strategies. Outside the classroom, the group maintains ties with the financial community and gains access to resources seldom seen in an academic environment. According to Professor Karolyi, the students gain a competitive advantage for elite internship and employment opportunities in financial arenas, including Wall Street. As the Charles R. Webb Designated Professor of Finance, Karolyi is wellknown in the area of investment management with a specialization in international financial markets. His current research focuses on the valuation of companies from around the world that strategically target U.S. equity markets for capital-raising activities. The work has garnered several recognitions, including this year’s Fama/DFA Prize for Best Paper in Capital Markets and Asset Pricing in the Journal of Financial Economics, and has led Karolyi to be sought out as a consultant by global investment companies, financial institutions and stock exchanges. He was recently named to the board of directors of both the American Finance Association and the Financial
Management Association.

Mastering Logistics Engineering

With the recent outsourcing of manufacturing jobs and increased global trade, logistics is one of the fastest-growing employment fields. Firms are looking for a new breed of logistics professionals who combine strong managerial and technical skills. In response, Fisher College and the College of Engineering have created a new Master in Business Logistics Engineering (MBLE), one of only a few programs of its kind in the country and backed by Fisher College’s logistics program, ranked 3rd in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Directed by Logistics Professor Walter Zinn, the 45-credit MBLE degree enables graduates to enter the job market equally comfortable with logistics strategy and operations and engineering tasks such as facility design and implementation of logistics technology. When he’s not creating new programs that anticipate market need, Zinn works regularly with the international business community as a conference speaker and has been recognized with a logistics innovation award from the Latin American Logistics Center. He recently returned from China where he addressed a conference in Shenzhen sponsored by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and served as a guest speaker at China’s Shanghai Maritime University.