President's Blog: From the Heart

By Eric F. Spina

(University of Dayton President Eric Spina delivered these remarks at the 25th anniversary celebration for the Davis Center for Portfolio Management, the largest student-run investment fund in the nation.)

Thank you, Trevor! I appreciate your innovative and steadfast leadership as dean of the School of Business Administration. You and your faculty and staff provide countless opportunities for our students to gain the kind of high-impact hands-on experience that gives them a competitive edge when they graduate and start their careers. Indeed, from everything I see across the country, your school’s experiential learning enterprise is second to none.

I’d also like to applaud the tireless work of Davis Center Director Dan Kapusta on organizing today’s investment symposium and reception. Thank you, Dan, for sharing your wealth of investment expertise with our students day in and day out. I regularly see your passion play out through your mentorship and care for our students, including their growth as professionals, as leaders, and as people!

I offer my warm welcome to all alumni and finance leaders who have joined us to celebrate what is arguably the *best* hands-on learning opportunity for undergraduate students in the country. Many of you can attest to that statement because it’s not an exaggeration. Virtually all Davis Center graduates receive job offers in the finance industry. Most have multiple job offers, some as early as their junior year! The more than 700 Davis Center alumni are working at some of the most respected investment firms on Wall Street, including Blackrock, Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Merrill Lynch, among others. You make us very proud for the excellent work you and the way you represent UD in the industry! Please continue to stay connected to the Davis Center, the School of Business Administration, and UD — support the center, mentor current students, support their efforts to gain internships and employment. THANK YOU.

Finally, and most importantly, we owe our deepest gratitude to Dick and Sue Davis, who had the foresight 25 years ago to invest in a center that now proudly bears their name. I’m sorry they are unable to join us tonight because Sue is ill, but I want to recognize their generosity.

Across those 25 years, Dick and Sue have remain engaged and have given their time, wisdom, and philanthropy to Davis Center students — students they care for, encourage, and support. They have helped the students in this room become finance leaders and community builders, wise professionals and the backbones of their communities. The Davis name represents vision, integrity — and an investment in the future of their success. That investment has clearly paid huge dividends for Davis Center students, alumni and the University of Dayton. Thank you, Dick and Sue!

We do have so much to celebrate tonight.

For openers, the real-world experience students receive at this high-tech, interactive center that simulates Wall Street’s trading floor is put into meaningful action. Our students routinely outperform the S&P 500 benchmark and outshine professional money managers.

I beam with pride every time these students present their results and winning strategy to the Board of Trustees and to VIPs who come to campus. And, I might add that the trustees have expressed no qualms — zero — in allocating $15 million of the University’s endowment over the years for the students to invest because it’s a wise, prudent move.

How wise? Today, the fund has grown to $80 million in assets, making it the largest student-managed fund in the entire country. Our student managers have generated capital gains in excess of $65 million since the center’s founding. We pride ourselves on our Marianist humility here, but *that’s* an amazing accomplishment!

It’s not just UD’s trustees who trust these students to successfully manage a diversified portfolio, no matter how volatile the market can be.

In a partnership that’s believed to be one of the first of its kind in the country, The Dayton Foundation is entrusting UD students with managing and growing $4.3 million in donor funds. That, in itself, is impressive, but the students are also learning the value of philanthropy. Over the last three years, they have donated over $30,000 of their management fee to local charities, such as the Boys and Girls Club and DECA.

This initiative has caught the eye of AACSB International — the world’s largest business education alliance — which recognized the partnership with its “2024 Innovations That Inspire” Award. The association chose the Davis Center for the award for the way it’s “contributing to a better world” and “demonstrating the important role business schools play in our society.”

We appreciate Dick and Sue Davis, for seeding the center and cultivating a desire in our students to not only do well, but to also contribute to their communities — something that is essential to our mission as a Catholic, Marianist university.

Just a few more words about this couple. Long before “experiential learning” became hot in higher education, Dick and Sue knew the value of giving business students the opportunity to put their learning into action in a field that requires risk, innovation, creativity, teamwork, and thoughtfulness.

Dick founded a successful financial company and gave prudent counsel to the University of Dayton as chair of the investment committee of the Board of Trustees. He instinctively knew there was no better way to prepare students for jobs in the investment world than by giving them a slice of the University’s endowment to manage. I know he and Sue take great pride in what has been accomplished by the students over time and by the impact that these experiences have on each and every student who is part of the Davis Center team.

I love Dick’s memory about his time as a UD student. “It’s a place,” he said, “where people smile and hold the door open for you.”

My heartfelt thanks again to Dick and Sue Davis for opening the doors to the world of finance for our students. Tonight, we appreciate their generosity of spirit and vision.