The summer has been busy at the David Eccles School of Business. The second phase of the Spencer Fox Eccles Building is complete—the final touches are being added so students can start using the new classrooms and specialty rooms such as the live trading floor for the finance students. We also welcomed a new faculty member, an associate dean, and new director.
Dr. Peter Bossaerts, a leader in the growing field of neuroeconomics, joined the David Eccles School of Business in our Department of Finance. Dr. Bossaerts’ early research investigated the theoretical and empirical issues of finance and now focuses on the experimental finance and the burgeoning field of neuroscience. Dr. Bossaerts works across several academic disciplines to test, modify and extend long-held economic theories about markets and their participants through actual scientific experiments in a laboratory.
Bossaerts attributes his interest in experimentation to a period in the late ‘90s when he and CalTech peer, Charles Plott, started testing financial models in the laboratory, where they had 60 subjects trading securities alongside each other in multiple markets. “I come more out of a theory background, but I’m interested in experiments,” Bossaerts said. “From then on, I’ve been doing experiments. It’s been very slow to mature because we’re basically developing methodology as we go, learning how to run experiments and how to learn about this in an area that traditionally has done no experimentation. So, we are where physics was 400 years ago, where biology was 60 or 70 years ago.”
Dr. Uri Loewenstein, Chair of the Finance Department, adds, “We are very happy to welcome a world-class economist and a leader in the new and exciting area of neuroeconomics. We expect our students and faculty to benefit tremendously from Professor Bossaerts presence here. We also hope he will help us build new bridges between the David Eccles School of Business and the University of Utah’s Brain Institute and College of Engineering.”
Also this summer, the school welcomed Mark Parker who comes on board as the new Associate Dean of Undergraduate Affairs. Parker was the Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Mathematics at Carroll College in Montana prior to joining our staff. He says what intrigued him about the position was finding a Tier 1 research university that “wanted to focus energy and resources on undergraduate education and try to improve their standing among peer institutions.” He adds, “I saw there are some people really passionate about undergraduate education and I wanted to see what the possibilities were.”
Parker’s background outside of business is an asset—“I don’t have any preconceived notions of how it should go” when it comes to enhancing the undergraduate experience of students. While rankings are important, and used by students when they consider which school to attend, Parker said focusing on the things that the school already does well as it moves forward, and celebrating those things on a larger scale, will help it find a niche among students. He also wants to make the undergraduate experience one that will stay with students even as they become alumni. “You look at curricular and extracurricular activities available to our students to keep them engaged,” Parker said. “You offer mentoring and counseling along the way, in terms of career management. And you stay in touch after they leave. I think all those things help attract great students.”
Another great addition to our staff is Danny Wall, new Finance and Master of Real Estate Development Director. Wall comes to the University of Utah after about a decade in the real estate field, where he preformed appraisals, consulting, commercial lending, and commercial brokerage. He has spent the past seven years working full-time as an appraiser and consultant after jobs working in brokerage in Boise, lending in Denver, and as a product developer for Deckers Outdoor Corporation in California.
With both the Masters of Real Estate and Masters of Finance fields growing, Wall said his experience attending one of the most established real-estate masters programs in the country at the University of Denver is something that will help him build the program at the David Eccles School of Business. Between the highly ranked faculty in the Department of Finance and the unique collaboration between the MRED program and the University of Utah’s College of Architecture and Planning, he sees strong opportunities for both programs. “With Danny’s extensive knowledge of finance and real estate, I am confident he will further enhance the great work Buzz Welch and Jim Schallheim have undertaken in building our MRED and MSF programs thus far,” said Dr. Christine Botosan, Associate Dean of Graduate Affairs.
We are excited to have the new faces and energy as we grow our college to a top 25 school. Welcome!