This investment pays dividends

Joel Sims, a master’s candidate in UB’s finance program in the School of Management, takes a group selfie with fellow students and benefactor Gregg Fisher (third from left).

Joel Sims, a master’s candidate in UB’s finance program in the School of Management, takes a group selfie with fellow students and benefactor Gregg Fisher (third from left).

“It’s like a Rubik’s Cube—the more that you mess around with it, the more information you can get, the more in depth that you can go.”

That’s how Joel Sims, a master’s candidate in finance, describes the Bloomberg Terminals found in the Jacobs Management Center at the UB School of Management. The terminals, used by finance professionals around the world, enable users to access real-time market data and breaking financial news combined with powerful analytics and communications tools in order to conduct in-depth financial research.

When Sims entered his master’s program at UB, there was only one Bloomberg Terminal, and it could often be difficult to access the machine due to high demand. This past year, thanks to a gift from Gregg Fisher, BS ’92, the program added four additional terminals to the center.

Gregg Fisher’s bold moment

I was speaking with a recent grad about what would have made his experience at the UB School of Management even better, and he mentioned that they only had one Bloomberg Terminal. It seemed like providing funding for additional terminals would have an immediate impact on the student experience at the school. I’ve heard that within a few weeks of getting the new terminals onsite, hundreds of students signed up to use them—it’s been very cool and exciting to know my gift could affect so many students so quickly.”

Sims applied the research skills he has gained through using the terminals to his internship at the Buffalo office of the London Stock Exchange Group, a global financial markets infrastructure business.

“They asked me to do some research, and because I had experience using the Bloomberg Terminals and know what good research looks like, I was able to give them exactly what they wanted,” shares Sims.

Sims is grateful to Fisher for donating the terminals. “The Bloomberg Terminals have bolstered my understanding of what it means to be an investment researcher. I’m really thankful for the opportunity to use them during my time at UB.”