Gifford Fong, BS 67, MBA 69, JD 71, at a Sept. 3 event to celebrate his contributions to Haas. Photo: Katelyn Tucker.
The top-ranked MFE program has been renamed the Fong Master of Financial Engineering Program.
Gifford Fong has been a mainstay of the MFE Program, giving both financially and with his time.
The gift will help set up the program for years to come.
The UC Berkeley Haas Master of Financial Engineering (MFE) Program has been renamed to honor H. Gifford Fong, BS 67, MBA 69, JD 71.
The Fong Master of Financial Engineering Program acknowledges both his generous naming gift and his devotion to the program he co-created more than 25 years ago.
Dean Jennifer Chatman, PhD 88, announced the new name at a Sept. 3 event celebrating Fong, who is a rare “triple Bear” and president of Gifford Fong Associates, a top-rated firm focused on fixed income, derivative products, and asset allocation analysis.
In the late 1990s, noting a need for professionals with both rigorous quantitative training and real-world financial expertise, Fong partnered with finance professor David Pyle to develop the curriculum for an MFE program and provided the seed funding.
The pioneering MFE Program, launched in 2001, primes students to use math, theoretical finance, and computer programming skills to make technically complex financial decisions. It’s consistently ranked No. 1 by the influential TFE Times.
Fong has been a mainstay of the self-supporting program ever since, giving both financially and with his time as a guest speaker, advisory board member, and judge of student projects.
(L-R) Dean Jenny Chatman, Gifford and Vivian Fong, and Chancellor Rich Lyons. Photo: Katelyn Tucker.
He’s also proud to have attended all but one MFE graduation ceremony. The 12-month program celebrated its 25th graduating class in March. In 2001, there were 46 students; today the growing program has 84.
“Having Gifford’s name on the program is wonderful,” says Professor Terry Hendershott, the MFE Program’s faculty director. “He has such a passion for education and for facilitating knowledge flows between his practice and academia. It’s personal to him, and that’s what he’s known for: deep devotion.”
A 95% post-grad placement rate
While Fong’s parents didn’t attend college, they prioritized it for their six children. Four attended Berkeley, the others San Francisco State. As a Berkeley undergraduate, he switched from pre-med to business and discovered his love for research.
“Research is based upon good analysis: You have an outstanding question and need a process to respond to it,” says Fong. “It’s a rigorous and demanding—but at the same time rewarding—experience.”
After earning a law degree, Fong opened his firm in 1974, grounding it in academic rigor. The prestigious Journal of Finance, among others, published his work. In 2003, he launched the Journal of Investment Management (JOIM) and soon after a JOIM conference series to bridge the theory and practice of investment management. He continues serving as editor of JOIM and hosted one of the conference on campus last fall.
A few MFE Program graduates work in Fong’s firm, and he’s occasionally sponsored an MFE intern. A hallmark of the Haas program, he says, is placing graduates in good jobs.
“We have a 95% placement rate post-graduation,” says Ananth Madhavan, executive director of the MFE Program. “Our students are in high demand.”
Industry’s need for quantitative investing expertise “has gone up and up and up,” says Hendershott. “And with AI and data science, our program is evolving further.”
Setting the program up for the next 25 years
Fong says he hopes his naming gift will keep the successful program—a model for similar programs at top schools—both excellent and relevant and allow it to expand.
“But expansion doesn’t mean enrollment,” Fong adds. “It refers to having the resources to take on new areas. Technology is changing very rapidly, and adapting to that is demanding.”
Hendershott says there are people who give money to universities, “but among those who have deep, ongoing relationships with them, Gifford is very special. And now he’s setting us up for the next 25 years.”
The naming gift also is part of a philanthropic legacy that Fong and his wife, Vivian, are establishing for their four grandchildren. “We want to inspire them to recognize that they can make a difference,” he says, “and contribute to what we’ve started to the benefit of everyone involved.”