About the Center > History
History
In May of 1996 the Governor of Texas, George W. Bush, dedicated the Center. When it opened for classes in the fall of the 1996-1997 academic year the Center was the only facility of its kind on college campuses nationwide. Dean of the McCombs School of Business, Dr. George W. Gau was the founding director. His vision was to create a state-of-the-art trading, research and teaching facility. Its goal was to help students, faculty, executives and the community understand the growing flow of financial data and its impact on financial markets as well as to enable them to participate in the development of new applications of information technology to finance. Dean Gau translated his vision for the facility into reality by enlisting the support of numerous corporate sponsors.
The lead sponsor of the Center is EDS, Electronic Data Systems. EDS not only contributed funds to cover a substantial portion of the construction costs of the Center, but also provided the personnel and in-kind support to integrate the widely varying data sources and technologies of the Center. Joining EDS as supporters of the Center are forty corporate partners who donated their equipment and services. Completing the funding are Center Trustees, a group of leading investment banking and financial service firms who supported the Center financially. A total of over $6 million in funding and equipment was contributed to the creation of the EDS Financial Trading and Technology Center. Since the summer of 1996, the Center has grown to be valued at over $10 million. A detailed list of corporate partners is available on this web site.
Originally the center consisted of the trading room (5 work stations), the classroom (38 work stations) and the technology showcase room. During the summer of 1999, the first major equipment upgrade was completed. Workstations and other equipment in the trading and class rooms were replaced, incorporating the latest technology. Computers in both rooms have access to Bloomberg, Reuters, Bridge and Stock Val.
In January 2000 Dr. Gau resigned as director to accept a variety of other challenges. He appointed Dr. Beverly Hadaway as his successor.
After six years of operations the first major renovation of the center began. Funding for the undertaking was provided through a generous endowment initiated by two of the founders of the AIM Management Group, Gary Crum and Bob Graham. In addition, numerous employees of the AIM Management Group contributed to the endowment.
Plans called for a complete remake of the trading room consistent with the donor’s corporate image. Goals of the project included increasing the number of work stations, expanding the meeting facilities available to the fund managers and providing more storage space. Of course, the latest technology was incorporated in the renovated facilities. The trading room was redesigned to accommodate six workstations, fitted with four flat screen plasma TVs and equipped with the latest hardware and software. A small conference room, with video conference capabilities, was created in the space formerly known as the technology showcase area. Finally, the focal point of the renovation is a seventy foot curved ticker, proving stock quotes and news headlines to the McCombs Business School community. A ribbon cutting ceremony officially opened the renovated AIM trading and conference rooms on October 10, 2002.
Students using the Center’s classroom in the fall of 2003 can take
advantage of equipment up-grades for each of the thirty-eight workstations
and enjoy enhanced quality from a new screen projector.
Each year the Center is host to visitors from across the nation and around
the world, a sample of which is listed here:
ACAP Accounting program
Amsterdam Delegation
Applied Materials
Australian Minister of Trade
Chinese Delegation
CIBER tours
CINergy Corporation
ESAN University, Peru
Executive Education Programs
Florida State University
Institute for Private Enterprise and Democracy, Polish Chamber of Commerce
LAMP program
LEAD program
Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM)
National Taiwan University
Nasdaq
Norwegian Editors
McCombs School of Business Alumni (Fifty-Year Alums)
Rice University
Teknecon Energy Risk Advisors -- Energy Trading program
Texas Empowerment Organization (high school program)
University of Hong Kong
University of Michigan
University of North Carolina
Since its inception the center has been the model for similar trading and classroom facilities developed on over twenty campuses across the country.