College of Business

Department of Finance, Insurance, Real Estate 

 Message from the Chair 

Welcome to the Department of Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate Website. The Finance major is currently the largest in the College of Business. 

Our undergraduate finance major is flexible to allow students to focus their studies in one of six career tracks:

·  Financial Management
·  Investment Analysis
·  Financial Institutions Management
·  Financial Services
·  Real Estate
·  Risk Management and Insurance

In addition to the rigorous academic program, the department provides an experiential learning component for our undergraduate program. Our students manage approximately $1,500,000 of WSU endowment funds in the Cougar Investment Fund. This program was featured on CNBC in spring of 2003. The Cougar Investment Fund, under the supervision of Dr. Richard Sias, has outperformed the S&P 500 each year since it started in 2001.

Through the generosity of D.A. Davidson Company, our students may also participate in the analysis and selection of stocks. The D.A. Davidson Investment Program outperformed the S&P 500 in 2005. 

Our students won second place in the 2006 Pacific Northwest Real Estate Challenge, sponsored by the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) chapters in the region. Multidisciplinary student teams prepared comprehensive development proposals (including project design and financing) for a difficult to develop site along the downtown Seattle waterfront. Other participating universities were the University of Washington, Portland State University and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

The Department's lecture series -- the Brinson Lecture Series (Finance) and the Walton Lecture (Insurance) -- bring some of the very best and brightest minds to Pullman including Nobel Laureates Myron S. Scholes and Harry M. Markowitz, William Sharp; Jack Bogle (founder of Vanguard funds), Robert Shiller (author of the New York Times best seller, "Irrational Exuberance"), Mike McGavick (former CEO of Safeco Insurance Company) and Washington's Insurance Commissioner, Mike Kreidler.

The Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate Club hosts guest speakers, workshops, and offers field trips and resume advice. It participates in a variety of social and professional functions with other clubs in the WSU College of Business. Our students have visited many corporations, including Microsoft, Nike, and Starbucks.

World-class isn't just a tagline. The department is very proud of the dedication and devotion of our faculty to their classroom responsibilities.

The majority of faculty members have won teaching awards, many of them more than once. Most awards are college-wide awards including business honor society awards such as Beta Gamma Sigma. Three faculty members are the recipients of Teaching Innovation Awards. Finance faculty members also have valuable international experience. They have taught in international universities in Australia, China, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

Our faculty also has a large impact on the cutting-edge research in all of our career track offerings. Every faculty member has published in the best journal in his or her field. 

Thank you very much for visiting our website. We love to hear from you if you have any suggestions for the Department.

Best regards, 
Gene Lai, Chair and Safeco Distinguished Professor of Insurance
WSU College of Business, PO Box 644750, Washington State University, Pullman WA 99164-4750, 888-585-5433, Contact Us