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With a $2.5 million gift from alumnus and former trustee Dominic Frederico ’74, ’82, Drexel University is transforming the finance trading lab in Drexel’s Bennett S. LeBow College of Business into the Dominic J. Frederico ’74, ’82 Finance Trading Lab. The commitment will enable Drexel to enhance students’ activities with hands-on, experiential education — a cornerstone of the Drexel student experience.
“I am thrilled to support the Finance Trading Lab and to ensure students have the resources they need to gain the essential skills and real-world experience to become future leaders and innovators in the finance and trading industry,” said Dominic Frederico, a LeBow alumnus and president and chief executive officer of Assured Guaranty.
Established in 2013 with the purpose of providing hands-on training for the business leaders of the future, the finance trading lab serves as a resource for teaching students about portfolio management, equity modeling and more, through practical experience with cutting-edge, industry-standard software. The lab features 12 Bloomberg terminals and a prominent stock ticker with critical information on current market conditions.
It is also home to the Dragon Fund, a student-managed equity portfolio of over $3 million.
The Dragon Fund allows LeBow’s undergraduate students to run their own real-world equity portfolio. Since its beginnings in fall 2007, the fund has returned an average of 12.8% annually, growing from $1 million in seed money to nearly $4 million in assets, and it has earned a reputation as one of the top-performing student managed funds in the nation.
“In an ever-changing world, LeBow continues setting the standard for what a higher education in finance can and should be,” said Drexel President John Fry. “Beyond its role as a highly visible hallmark of LeBow, the Dominic J. Frederico ’74, ’82 Finance Trading Lab helps students build the skills needed for a career in finance.”
Frederico’s commitment will provide a broader range of opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience in finance; underwrite additional subscriptions to feature-loaded, industry-standard software programs; ensure the lab has the latest hardware; and provide the human resources necessary to keep the lab running smoothly.
New opportunities for students will include coursework in financial modeling and financial data mining; support to defray students’ costs to obtain valuable industry certifications and designations; and strengthening LeBow graduates’ résumés by working with a larger and enhanced student-run Dragon Fund portfolio.
“Our students cite this experience in the lab as being invaluable hands-on training which directly contributes to their success in co-op placements and their subsequent careers,” said Vibhas Madan, PhD, dean and R. John Chapel Jr. Dean’s Chair in the LeBow College of Business. “Maintaining the Dominic J. Frederico ’74, ’82 Finance Trading Lab as a state-of-the-art educational facility will ensure that our students will continue being exceptionally prepared for careers in the financial services sector and beyond, and that our Finance Department will be poised to train the next generation of analysts and business leaders.”
The Dominic J. Frederico ’74, ’82 Finance Trading Lab will re-open under the new name on Nov. 3.