Bank of America Charitable Foundation Provides Funding for Visiting Professor at Moscow’s New Economic School

MOSCOW – Merrill Lynch, a subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation, is pleased to announce a grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation to the Moscow-based New Economic School (NES) to fund the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Visiting Professor in Finance in Q2 2011.



From May to July, Christopher Hennessy from the London Business School will assume the position of visiting professor in Finance. He will lecture students of the NES Masters in Finance programme. Professor Hennessy specialises in corporate finance and the valuation of financial services, and has been recognised as one of the world’s top early-stage researchers in his field. His recent work focuses on hybrid debt, taxation and the design of financial contracts. Professor Hennessy has won three Brattle prizes for outstanding corporate finance research that have been published in the Journal of Finance. His faculty profile provides additional information.



“We are very thankful for this generous gift from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation. Christopher Hennessy is a truly deserving recipient of the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Visiting Professor in Finance position,” said Professor Sergei Guriev, rector of the NES.



“At Bank of America, our philanthropic investment helps organisations that contribute to economic opportunities benefiting society as a whole, and education is a key focus for us,” said Konstantin Korischenko, country executive for the company in Russia. “Financial education is of particular importance so our collaboration with the NES is an ideal fit for our organisation. This visiting professorship will contribute towards the continued development of Russia’s financial markets and in turn, the country’s economic development.”



Bank of America Corporate Philanthropy

Building on a long-standing tradition of investing in the communities it serves, Bank of America is delivering on a 10-year goal to donate $2 billion to nonprofit organisations engaged in improving the health and vitality of their communities. Funded by Bank of America, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation gave more than $200 million in 2010, making the company one of the largest corporate cash donors in the United States. Bank of America is a global company providing financial services in more than 150 countries. In Russia, it operates under the Merrill Lynch brand and offers fixed income and equity sales and trading capabilities, global corporate and investment banking products, including cash management, and research and wealth management capabilities. Globally, Bank of America invests in organisations that contribute to economic and social opportunities as well as global initiatives that will benefit society as a whole. Reaffirming a commitment to develop and sustain a culture of service, the company’s employee volunteers contributed more than one million hours in 2010 to enhance the quality of life in their communities worldwide. For more information about Bank of America Corporate Philanthropy, please visit www.bankofamerica.com/foundation.



About the New Economic School (www.nes.ru)
The New Economic School was founded in 1992 by a group of leading Russian and international academic economists with approval from the Government of the Russian Federation. The mission of the New Economic School is to benefit Russia’s private and public sectors through excellence in economics education and research. The core of NES is its resident faculty of 23 young Russian economists with PhDs in economics and finance from the world leading universities, including Harvard, MIT, LBS, Michigan, and Wisconsin-Madison. NES is ranked the best economics institution in terms of research in the Soviet successor states and is a top 100 economics institution in Europe (RePEc). According to the SSRN rating, NES stands among the top 100 economics departments in non-OECD countries. NES faculty carries out academic and applied research on the major issues affecting the Russian economy at the Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR) at NES. CEFIR at NES is ranked 14th globally in research among economic think tanks.