News
Coleman Fung Gives UC Berkeley $5 Million Gift
BERKELEY, CA, October 18, 2006 /Business Wire/ — The University of California, Berkeley received a $5 million gift from Coleman Fung, CEO & Founder of Open Link Financial, Inc., to establish the Coleman Fung Risk Management Research Center.
"When we talk about risk management today, most people would think of the risks originated from trading desks at banks and energy firms, hedge-fund portfolios, insurance companies, corporate treasuries, etc. That's what we do at Open Link today – providing robust risk management solutions to these clients. But we must do more in risk management so that we can better leverage its potentials and benefits for a resource-constrained future as major developing economies like China and India continue their rapid pace of economic development. That's why we need to make the investment now," Mr. Fung commented. He continued, "And there is no better place to make that investment than at UC Berkeley, with its leading and diverse resources and its famed interdisciplinary efforts and cooperative spirit."
The new Center, which will be housed within the Institute of Business and Economic Research, will tap the expertise and resources of the nation's top public teaching and research university. It will be an interdisciplinary effort drawing on Berkeley's leading faculty in economics, engineering, business, technology, energy and the environment to accelerate developing new and robust risk management-based business practices and tools through basic and applied research projects. One goal of the Center will be to enhance the transparency and accessibility of the risk management practice through developing a unifying analytical and modeling framework. The gift will create an endowed chair in Risk Management in the Department of Economics and the chairholder will serve as Director of the Center and its activities. Open Link will provide an additional $250,000 a year for four years to fund research projects that fit within the Center's objectives.
"The Department of Economics is honored to have been chosen to lead the Coleman Fung Risk Management Research Center which will facilitate both cutting-edge research in Economic issues and the practical application of that research in a wide variety of markets," said Professor Benjamin Hermalin, Chair of the Department of Economics at UC Berkeley.
Fung has deep ties to UC Berkeley where he earned his bachelor's degree in industrial engineering and operations research in 1987. He has been a loyal and magnanimous supporter of the University over the years, creating most recently an endowment for the Coleman Fung Chair in Financial Modeling in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. Fung is also a primary donor to the new C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies, in particular supporting the Coleman Fung Media Center.
"We are extremely grateful to Coleman Fung for this generous gift which will put the campus at the forefront of the rapidly evolving field of risk management,” said UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau. He continued, "With the Center's focus on finance and energy markets, it will leverage Berkeley's overall excellence and further strengthen our existing research in key areas pertinent to today's global economy."
About OpenLink
Founded in 1992, OpenLink is a leading developer of energy and financial trading, risk management, and operations processing software solutions. The company's Next Generation eXtensible (NGX 2.0) platform supports the most rigorous business requirements of firms trading in energy, interest rate derivatives, fixed income securities, foreign exchange, money markets, metals, and soft commodities. OpenLink's global client base includes 70+ clients such as Austin Energy, HESS Corporation, Banco Central de Costa Rica, Banco de Mexico, Bank of America, Bank for International Settlements, Bank of Canada, HBOS Treasury Services, Bridgeline Holdings, Calyon, Coral Energy, Citigroup Global Market, Inc., Deutsche Bank, Enbridge, Energy Transfer Partners, Nexen, Shell, Statoil and Vattenfall Europe Trading. Headquartered in Long Island, New York, and with offices in London, Houston, New York City, Berlin, Sydney, and São Paulo, OpenLink employs more than 375 professionals worldwide.
