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Robert Ettinger


Robert Ettinger, a native of Los Angeles, received his B.A. in economics from UCLA in 1980, and received an M.B.A from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is President of Flaherty and Crumine, Inc., a Pasadena investment consulting firm that manages over $4 billion in assets. He recalls becoming excited about investments as a career choice when he was an undergraduate student taking UCLA’s course in money and banking from Professor Rod Jacobs.


Robert has been a longtime supporter of UCLA, giving both in terms of financial gifts and his time. He is an active member of the Department's Board of Visitors, and he gave the keynote commencement speech at the 2001 economics Department commencement. Most recently, Robert and his wife Jane Ettinger have established the Robert Ettinger Family Program in Macroeconomic Research at UCLA. “After twenty-five years, I’ve come to realize that my economics education is the foundation for much of the knowledge that I’m able to bring to my work. From Managerial Economics to the Theory of Capital Markets, most of the subjects I studied at UCLA are essential to the investment decision making process.”


The Ettingers' very generous gift supports macroeconomic and international economics research at UCLA by funding the Department’s macroeconomics seminar series and conferences, funding graduate students to travel to workshops and conferences, and by establishing the Ettinger prizes, which are awarded each year to the best graduate student papers in the entire Economics Department. Robert explains that the focus of the program will be “research that will utilize newer analytical tools and models that treat economic relationships as a dynamic process, rather than a static condition.”


Robert hopes that his gifts will inspire other alumni and university friends to support UCLA economics. To those who are interested in becoming involved, he advises “Take the time to learn more about the challenges and opportunities facing UCLA. Visit the campus. Bookmark the website. And specifically for all the economics graduates, I’d say ‘Don’t be part of the free-rider problem we all studied! Contact the development office and they’ll tell you more about the exciting research, teaching, and public service that is going on at UCLA economics, and how you can help be a part of this exciting process.”