The Joe T. Ford Portfolio Management Fund provides selected, high-quality finance students with applied experience in financial investment and portfolio management. Enrollment in the class is competitive, and students must interview with the finance faculty before they are accepted into the class.
Each student in the class performs a sector economic analysis and screens 10-15 companies within their assigned sector for inclusion in the Ford Trust. Each student presents their analysis of a company to prominent finance professionals on the Finance Advisory Board. The class then determines the composition of the portfolio by buying and selling equities consistent with the investment policy statement and the specific constraints of the fund.
Through guest lectures and site visits the students have the opportunity to meet and learn from CFO’s and CEO’s of publicly traded companies, economists, and research analysts.
The Joe T. Ford Trust was created in 2003 with an initial endowment of $150,000. As of April 2023, the Trust value was $510,000.
The current Joe Ford Chair of Finance is Dr. Ashvin Vibhakar.
