|
Real Estate Executives Fund Cutting-Edge Curriculum
Pledging over $2 million, a group of real estate and finance executives has established the first-ever academic center at a top business school to specialize in real estate finance. While the McCombs School at UT Austin has long offered individual real estate courses, the Real Estate Finance and Investment Center (REFIC) will for the first time offer students a comprehensive program, combining the disciplines of finance, real estate, law, and community planning.
So far, 34 Texas businesspeople are involved in the effort to make the REFIC a reality. “Our continued success as a firm is critically dependent on our ongoing ability to hire bright, well-prepared students,” said Todd Williams, Managing Director of Goldman Sachs in Dallas. “As a result we felt that assisting in the creation of a strong real estate program made a lot of strategic sense, both for us as a company and for the University of Texas.”
A market downturn in the late 80s and early 90s led real estate developers to branch out from traditional financing vehicles, seeking new sources of capital in the financial markets. To access new securititized debt and equity financing, many real estate companies became publicly traded corporations, and their managers needed to enhance their financial skills. These companies are now faced with a growing need for expertise in areas such as financial analysis, project evaluation, and equity and debt securitization.
The Center for Real Estate Finance at the McCombs School will meet that need at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Students will graduate to fast-track positions as property managers, commercial leasing agents, and analysts and move on to careers as developers and real estate financiers.
“I am very excited about being involved in the creation of the Center for Real Estate Finance” stated Jeff Swope, Managing Partner of Champion Partners. “The University of Texas has an outstanding finance department, and I am confident that the faculty can establish UT as a leader in real estate education and research.”
In keeping with its goal of training students to be real estate professionals during this period of fundamental transformation in the industry, REFIC will fund curriculum development, provide undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships for students interested in the field, fund grants for faculty research on real estate and financial issues, and host conferences and research seminars on important real estate finance topics.
“The Center will take advantage of our talented finance faculty to develop cutting-edge research on finance-related real estate issues,” said Finance Department Chair and Center Director George Gau. “The valuation of mortgage-backed securities, the financial structure of real estate investment trusts, the agency issues associated with real estate financing agreements, and the efficiency of real estate investment markets are all areas warranting study.”
Investors in the REFIC will join the Center’s Advisory Council and support the Center’s educational and research program by advising on program strategy and curriculum, speaking in classes, providing career advice to students, identifying employment opportunities for students, and providing properties as case studies.
The current Advisory Council members are Beau Armstrong, Cal Axtell, Lucy Billingsley, J im Brownlow, Tom Delatour, Robert Duncan, Charles Dunleavy, David Dunning, Bill Duvall, Walter Embrey, Steve Ford, Mark Gibson, Sandy Gottesman, David Graham, Barry Henry, Carolyn Frost Keenan, Ed Kelley, Bob Kolba, Dick LeBlanc, Steve Lee, Dean Macfarlan, Butch McCaslin, Jeff Mundy, Marc Myers, Pat Oles, Will Penland, Steve Prinz, Frank Schubert, John Stuart, Jeff Swope, Charles Teeple, Gifford Touchstone, Todd Williams, and John Zogg. These participants generously give time and energy as well as financial support to the REFIC and represent leading companies such as USAA Real Estate Company, CB Richard Ellis, Lincoln Property Company, JPI Companies, Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, Transwestern Group, Crow Holdings, Wells Fargo Real Estate Group, Guaranty Bank, GMAC Commercial Mortgage, Crescent Real Estate Equities, and Goldman, Sachs & Co, among others.
Companies or individuals interested in participating in the Center for Real Estate Finance, or in any of the other finance centers, please contact Dr. George Gau at (512) 471-6612.
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
