Center Will Offer Banking and Investment Management MBA Degrees, Industry Programs

DePaul University’s College of Commerce has named William A. Obenshain, 66, executive director of its new Center for Financial Services. Obenshain, former managing partner of Bank of America’s European private equity business, joined DePaul March 15 to oversee the center’s education, research and outreach programs, including new MBA concentrations in banking and investment management that will be offered in the fall.

A resident of the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, Obenshain brings 38 years of experience in the investment and banking fields to his new post. As founder and chairman of Bank of America’s BA Capital Partners Europe from 1995 to 2006, he managed 16 investment professionals and $1.3 billion in capital in 10 European countries. He previously served for three years as managing director and head of special asset administration for Bank of America and Continental Bank, which Bank of America acquired in 1994. During his tenure at Continental from 1968 to 1994, he rose from a trainee and account officer to managing director of the institution’s Midwest and New England corporate banking services.

Before joining Continental, Obenshain served in the U. S. Navy for five years, earning the rank of lieutenant. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science from Dartmouth College in 1962 and completed his MBA at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business the following year.

Obenshain, who currently is a director of two European private equity funds, said he looks forward to helping the center achieve its goal of bridging the theoretical and practical dimensions of the finance field for students and industry professionals. “The establishment of the center presents the perfect opportunity to forge a strong working link between the faculty and students of the College of Commerce and the Chicago-area financial services industry,” he said. “I look forward to accelerating the progress already made in converting this opportunity to reality.”

Obenshain became involved in the center as a board member in the fall of 2006 and has been instrumental in formulating the center’s strategy and agenda, said Ali Fatemi, department of finance chair. “Bill is uniquely qualified to be executive director because of his long and distinguished career in the field of financial services, his high-level contacts within the industry and his enthusiasm for what we are trying to build.”

With Obenshain on board, a priority for the center is to identify a prominent scholar to fill the newly created Christopher L. Keeley Endowed Chair in Investment Management. 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 DePaul in December to fund the research chair position. The gift commemorates the Keeleys’ late son, Christopher, a DePaul alumnus and KAMCO officer who died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism at age 29 in 2002.

The Center for Financial Services four-pronged mission is to support innovative undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate curricula in financial services; sponsor industry forums on financial service policymaking; develop financial literacy programs that benefit the community and provide industry-relevant research about national and international banking and financial service issues.