Lakonishok Gift Will benefit Urbana-Champaign College of Business

A seven-figure commitment from Dr. Josef and Margot Lakonishok of Chicago will support the position of the dean of the College of Business on the Urbana-Champaign campus. In addition to endowing the Lakonishok Deanship, the couple’s gift will establish the Josef and Margot Lakonishok Doctoral Fellowship in the Department of Finance and will be used to support other programs, initiatives and priorities of the College, such as faculty research, curriculum development, scholarships for graduate and undergraduate students, expenses for special student programs and alumni and corporate outreach activities and other purposes determined by the dean.

Josef Lakonishok, who received a Ph.D. in finance from Cornell University as well as a master’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s degree in economics and statistics from Tel Aviv University in Israel, has served on the U of I College of Business faculty at Urbana-Champaign since 1987, where he holds the William G. Karnes Distinguished Professorship in Finance. He also held appointments at Tel Aviv University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of British Columbia.

In addition to his distinguished academic career, Lakonishok founded LSV Asset Management in 1994. He is the chief executive officer and chief investment officer of the Chicago firm and is involved in all portfolio management and research functions.

A top contributor to major financial journals, he has published more than 80 articles and has received several awards for work, including the Roger F. Murray Award and the Smith-Breeden Award from the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance, the American Association of Individual Investors Award and the Nikko-LOR Research Competition Award.

Margot Lakonishok, who earned a master’s degree from Hebrew University in Israel, had served as a research specialist in U of I Department of Cell and Structural Biology at Urbana-Champaign, and is currently a research specialist at Northwestern University. Previously, she worked at Cornell University and Tel Aviv University.

The Lakonishoks’ gift was announced by U of I President B. Joseph White during the kickoff of Brilliant Futures: The Campaign for the University of Illinois, which seeks to raise $2.25 billion to support students, faculty, research, programs and campus environments.

The Brilliant Futures Campaign was publicly launched On June 1 at an event attended by over 1,115 alumni and other supporters at Chicago’s Navy Pier. The campaign officially began on July 1, 2003, with its “planning phase” and will continue its eight and one-half year quest through year-end 2011.