University of Montreal HEC Academic Partnership Signing Ceremony

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Earlier this year, the CAIA Association established an academic partnership program to encourage business schools to increase the coverage of the alternative investments (AI) in their curriculum. The growing importance of AI has prompted many business schools to want to increase their coverage of this subject, especially in the areas of hedge funds and private equity.  We have the foundation of knowledge to assist schools seeking to expand AI within their course offerings.

By partnering with us, academic institutions send a signal to the marketplace that the courses they offer meet high industry standards.  The best students interested in careers in AI will seek out schools with programs proven to provide industry-standard knowledge. On the flip side, corporate recruiters will know that graduates of our partners come with extensive knowledge in the AI area and will be ready to hit ground running.

As added benefits, faculty of these institutions will be able to enroll in our program at a low cost. Further, once a faculty becomes a member of the CAIA Association, he/she will be able to offer a limited number of academic scholarships to students ( limited to Level I exam).  As a benefit to us, our profile is raised among faculty, students, alumni and corporate recruiters.

A few weeks ago, we announced the University of Montreal HEC as our first academic partner.  We are very proud of this relationship as we have a number of active members in Montreal and a few who are associated with HEC.  In particular, Pierre Saint-Laurent, CAIA, member of our exam council and full-time faculty at HEC, was instrumental in establishing this first partnership.

Last week, Chris Holt and I traveled to Montreal to attend the signing ceremony, attended by CAIA members, HEC faculty and administrators. Pierre was the MC and did a fantastic job in organizing and managing the ceremony. Dr. Michel Patry, Director of HEC, spoke of the importance of the new partnership with the CAIA Association and of its positive impact on the HEC community. Chris talked about CAIA’s growing footprint in the investment industry. On behalf of the CAIA Association, I thanked our hosts and expressed of our desire to work with HEC to promote the association and its goal of educating investment professionals in the AI area.

The next stop will be HEC Lausanne as they have been selected to be our second academic partner.

Hossein Kazemi
Program Director, CAIA Association

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