APU and McKinley Capital Make Global Finance a Cooperative Curriculum.

• Author: SMITH, DAWNELL
• Position: Alaska Pacific University

The idea of paving a Wall Street in Anchorage sounds farfetched, but it makes business sense to the people who developed the global finance specialty at Alaska Pacific University.

Global finance studies, a concentration within the master of business administration program, kicked off with 17 students last fall. For the educators and finance practitioners who made it happen, the program pro vides the foundation for an investment industry in Alaska.

"There's an unlimited amount of world capital--(people) looking for a management team who can do better than the market," said Robert Gillam, president and chief investment officer for McKinley Capital Management Inc. of Anchorage. "They don't care if you do it from Alaska."

In fact, Alaska has a practical advantage: The state's time zone embraces market hours in New York, Japan and Europe during the course of a regular workday.

"We have the best time zone in the world for global assets," said Gillam. "Of all the places a global assets business should be, it's here. Is there a reason Alaska could not be like Switzerland, a wealthy country that specializes in the management of other people's money?"

That question has generated a lot of excitement.

"It's a hot concept I think," said Doug North, president of APU. He said this program provides the means to develop such an industry in Alaska, by pumping qualified people into the job market.

North views the global finance curriculum as the first step in nurturing that industry. He and Gillam also believe that Alaska has plenty of people who can make it happen.

"There's no shortage of brains here," said Gillam. "What there has been is a shortage of opportunities."

With global finance, "there's an enormous amount of opportunity for young people who don't all want to work in the oil industry, mines or government," said Gilliam.

Moreover, money management firms could have an unlimited impact on the state, said Gillam. Not only would these companies inject millions of dollars into the economy, but also they would provide highly paid jobs that tap new intellectual resources rather than natural ones.

In a way, Gillam proved his point when he founded McKinley Capital in 1990. Now the largest investment firm in Alaska, the company employs 77 people and manages over $5 billion in assets for corporate and public retirement funds, Taft-Hartley funds, foundations, endowments and individuals. In the past four years, managed assets grew by an average of 40 percent.

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