UNR donor hopes more will help

Jack McLeod, the fellow who loaned $100,000 to the University of Nevada, Reno, so that finance students can learn with real money, doesn't want to do it alone.

In fact, McLeod said last week, he'd like to find a handful of others willing to make similar loans to the UNR College of Business so teams of students could compete with real money.

McLeod, a senior vice president and investment officer with Wachovia Securities in Reno, visited with the seniors in finance who will be investing the $100,000 he loaned the school.

The deal, he said, is simple: Rather than use computer simulations of investment strategies, students will trade $100,000 in a Wachovia account.

There are few rules, notably that the students can't invest more than 12 percent in any single holding.

UNR gets the profits; McLeod has pledged to make up losses during the next five years.

There's nothing like real money to make finance come alive, McLeod told the students.

"If we were in a medical school, we'd get a cadaver," he said.

"Real money changes the whole perspective."

This isn't the first major contribution McLeod has made to students of finance.

Until the Sept.

11 attacks tightened security on Wall Street, he took small groups of UNR students each year on a behindthe- scenes tour of New York City.

"Us older folks have to help the younger folks," he said.

"This is my way of helping."

As he talked with students last week, McLeod had plenty of investment advice to accompany his cash.

Some examples:

* On ethical and legal abuses in the investment world: "The people in my business have an above-average greed gland.

That's not a bad thing.

The problem comes with unbridled greed."

* On learning to take a profit without looking back: "The great fortunes in this country have been made and kept by selling a little too soon."

* On finding opportunities: "If you see an idea, follow it through."

* On exit strategies with venture capital investments: "Always ask when do you get your money back and how do you get your money back."

* On finding a job: "If you want the big money and want something interesting on your resume, you've got to head for New York City." (On the other hand, he noted, most folks in the investment business on the East Coast wish they could find a similar position on the West Coast.)

McLeod, who earned a master's degree in investments at New York University and spent the majority of his 40-year career on Wall Street, came to Reno 16 years ago.

The teacher who will oversee the students' investments, Assistant Professor Ali Nejadmalayeri, said only an elite cadre of business schools nationwide have similar programs.

And Mike Reed, dean of the college of business, told the students that their results will be followed closely by faculty, administrators, other students and the media.

"But there's no pressure," he quipped.