The Fred Arditti Center for Risk Management at DePaul University’s College of Commerce has been awarded a $1 million grant by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Trust. The donation was one of twenty inaugural grants for Chicago-area education and healthcare non-profit institutions announced by the trustees of the recently launched charity at a Dec. 12 breakfast attended by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and other dignitaries.

DePaul’s finance department created the Arditti Center this year to promote excellence in teaching and research in the fields of risk and financial management. The center commemorates the work of the late futures industry pioneer Fred Arditti, a CME executive and 15-year DePaul finance faculty member, who died in October of 2005. A noted economist, Arditti conceived and introduced numerous finance industry innovations, including the Eurodollar contract, now the most actively traded futures contract in the world.

“The center will foster a curriculum that is grounded in finance theory, pragmatic in orientation and focused on problem solving,” said Ali Fatemi, chair of the finance department. “Consistent with Fred Arditti’s philosophy, the program will bridge academia and practice to produce graduates who are highly competent to work in the financial industry.”

In announcing the grant to DePaul, CME Trust Trustee James E. Oliff praised Fred Arditti as a “great thinker and leader” and said the Arditti Center was “dear to the hearts” of the charity’s trustees.

“Fred’s love of education, love of students, and love of learning filtered down through our institution, and in his honor we very willingly give to DePaul’s Arditti Center,” Oliff said. Noting DePaul’s major role in educating the “day-to-day practitioners” of Chicago’s finance industry, Oliff said the grant will help DePaul continue to “create people who do things.”

Mayor Daley praised the CME Trust’s commitment to supporting education and healthcare in Chicago. “There is no more important investment we can make if we expect this city to compete in the global marketplace of the 21st century,” he said.

Fundraising will continue for the Arditti Center, which plans to hire an academic chair, Fatemi said. The scholar who fills this position will design and implement DePaul’s curricula in risk management; maintain and coordinate the business school’s relationships with major players in the U.S. financial system, including the CME; and implement an applied research agenda for the center.

The grant caps a stellar period of fundraising for DePaul’s finance department. Earlier this month, the Keeley Family Foundation – founded by John L. Keeley, Jr., president and chief investment officer of Chicago-based Keeley Asset Management Corp. (KAMCO), and his wife, Barbara – donated $2 million dollars to the Center for Financial Services, another new center in the finance department. The gift will establish the Christopher L. Keeley Endowed Chair in Investment Management, named for the Keeley’s late son.

In October the Real Estate Center at DePaul, housed in the finance department, received funding for a chair in real estate studies through a $4 million endowment underwritten by the Michael J. Horne Education & Healthcare Assistance Foundation. DePaul alumnus George L. Ruff, founder and senior principal of New York-based Trinity Hotel Investors LLC, donated $1.5 million for a real estate professorship in September. In August of 2005 Douglas Crocker II, retired CEO of Equity Residential Properties Trust, and his wife, Cynthia, donated $2 million to fund the directorship of the Real Estate Center, held by Susanne Cannon.

“We are grateful for these donors, whose generosity allows us to expand high quality academic programs, attract prominent scholars and support research that addresses important industry issues,” said Ray Whittington, dean of the College of Commerce.

Contacts: DePaul: Robin Florzak, College of Commerce media relations manager: 312/362-8592, rflorzak@depaul.edu; CME Trust: Kassie Davis, executive director: 312/930-3292, kassie.davis@cmetrust.com.