On December 11, the UCLA Anderson network welcomed 37 new members in a Korn Hall ceremony. These new alumni however, carry a unique distinction. They are the first UCLA Anderson graduates to be awarded a Master of Financial Engineering (MFE) degree.
The graduates and their families were welcomed to the commencement by Professor Francis Longstaff, faculty director of the MFE program. Longstaff told the newly-minted financial engineers that "you can now hold your place in the top firms on Wall Street" and he urged them to continue their relationship with UCLA Anderson in an ongoing learning partnership.
Commencement speaker H. Gifford Fong, president of Gifford Fong Associates, reinforced Longstaff's remarks, telling the graduates that "things always change over time" and that they will need to continually adapt to these changes and that they need to have an attitude that is open to lifelong learning to succeed as financial engineers. He concluded with a wink towards their degree by hoping that "they always have a positive alpha, that they manage their beta and have a small residual variance."