The University of Utah will build on its research and teaching strengths in business and economics with creation of the Marriner S. Eccles Institute for Economics and Quantitative Analysis, announced today by the David Eccles School of Business.
The new institute is being launched with support of a $10 million gift from the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation and the Marriner S. Eccles Foundation, as well as a $10 million matching gift from the Charles Koch Foundation.
Marriner S. Eccles was the oldest son of business school namesake David Eccles and was a pioneering businessman in his own right — banker, economist and chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. He led the creation of First Security Corporation, the nation’s first multi-state operating bank holding company and, during the Great Depression, was tapped by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to manage the nation’s financial reserves. Marriner S. Eccles helped create the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Housing Act and the 1951 Treasury-Fed Accord.
“There is no better way to honor Marriner’s life and pay tribute to his remarkable impact on our nation than to invest in students and foster development of the ‘next generation’ of great leaders to carry on his legacy,” said Spencer F. Eccles, chairman and CEO of the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation.
The Marriner S. Eccles Institute for Economics and Quantitative Analysis will seek to provide transformational opportunities to advance faculty research, and will engage students from many fields in learning opportunities, focusing on developing quantitative skills, widely seen as critical in today’s data-driven job market, with a business economics perspective.
“Private philanthropy provides the university with the opportunity to create research and experiences for our faculty and students that otherwise wouldn’t be possible,” said U President David W. Pershing. “We are grateful for the generous support of these family foundations in making our campus one of the leading public universities in the country.”
The donations will allow the university to recruit six leading economists as faculty, support innovative research and fund student scholarships. Adam Meirowitz, Kem C. Gardner professor of finance at the Eccles Business School, will direct the new institute.
The new institute, established with provisional status through the David Eccles School of Business, will “enhance and complement the university’s existing program in economics, expanding areas of faculty expertise and interdisciplinary opportunities and—most important—engaging our students with a broad range of learning opportunities,” said Pershing.
The business school and the Department of Economics currently collaborate in two areas: a business economics and analytics emphasis within the economics degree and, as of fall 2017, a Quantitative Analysis of Markets and Organizations major offered by the Department of Finance.
Career opportunities for students with an economics degree range from banking and private equity to law, government, technology and academia.
The Department of Economics, housed in the College of Social and Behavioral Science, will continue to offer undergraduate and graduate degree programs with a social science perspective. In 2017, economics was the third most popular major for undergraduates at the U.
The full gift agreements are available online.
Watch more about this institute below.