Financial Insights

It was an auspicious occasion and represented a milestone for USF Sarasota-Manatee campus’s College of Business: As business leaders and others gathered last spring on the second floor of the campus, Dean James Curran, PhD, and David Kotok, chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors, unveiled a laboratory equipped with 12 new Bloomberg computer terminals.

“This is going to give our students access to the same information that financial experts around the world use to make major financial decisions,” Curran said.

A celebratory moment, the terminals represented a step forward in the education of USF Sarasota-Manatee campus business students. Few business colleges can boast they possess Bloomberg terminals.

Representing the financial industry’s gold standard in technology, the terminals provide real-time market data from around the world and typically are used by financial advisors and Wall Street traders.

Thanks to a gift from Cumberland Advisors, USF Sarasota-Manatee campus students can now access information about financial markets, economics, pricing data and descriptions, as well as data about stocks, bonds, mutual funds and information concerning Gross Domestic Product, the inflation rate and employment statistics.

“This contribution was made in order to help students learn about the ever-changing world of finance and investments via the most cutting-edge technology available,” Kotok said. “We are always looking for ways to help maintain and improve the lifestyle that attracted us to Sarasota. We look at that as a responsibility.

“Donating these terminals to USF Sarasota-Manatee and the community is a way we can do that,” he said. “Perhaps they will attract students to the area and potentially keep students in the greater Sarasota area.”