Engineering and Commerce Schools Receive $1 Million Gift
SNL Securities Grants Three-Year Access to Data Base

October 13, 1999 -- Charlottesville-based SNL Securities, a high-tech research and publishing company that specializes in the financial services industry, will grant three years of access to its on-line database, Data Source, to business and engineering students at the University of Virginia, in a gift valued at more than $1 million.

Data Source, a data bank of information on banks, thrifts, insurance companies and real estate investment trusts, is relied on by many of the country's top financial analysts and institutional investors who need up-to-the minute information to manage multi-billion-dollar investment portfolios.

"We're delighted with this gift from SNL, a company that is both a community asset and an important partner of the engineering school," said Engineering School Dean Richard W. Miksad. "Reid Nagle and his company are helping us achieve our goal of creating outstanding education and research programs in information technology. Our many relationships, ranging from shared research interests to a number of engineering alumni and students employed by SNL, provide a fine example of the mutual benefits of a partnership between higher education and private enterprise."

Adds McIntire School Dean Carl Zeithaml: "The McIntire School is very excited about SNL's gift of Data Source. Not only is Data Source an important information resource for our faculty and students, but it adds a terrific dimension to the knowledge partnership between McIntire and SNL. McIntire and the University have contributed to the intellectual capital of SNL and now the firm is providing an extraordinary opportunity to enhance the intellectual capital of current and future students. We sincerely appreciate SNL's generosity MORE and look forward to integrating Data Source into our curriculum and our new Center for Financial Markets."

SNL currently employs about 250 people, one-third of them U.Va. alumni.

SNL data will be used for both research and teaching. Engineering students will be able to study data mining, database management and related subjects, as will business students, who also will conduct related studies in finance and economics. Computer servers will relay data from the company's central database to the University's School of Engineering and Applied Science and to the McIntire School of Commerce, which in turn will make the material available to students at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

"Many of the SNL employees who have been instrumental in the development of the Data Source and our other products received degrees from U.Va.," said Reid Nagle, founder and president of SNL Securities. "We've been looking for an opportunity to provide direct support to U.Va. faculty in their research and teaching in the hope that our partnership will help prepare future students for careers in the financial services industry. We hope this gift will serve as an effective research and teaching tool and demonstrate our commitment to the University."

Reid Nagle, SNL president and publisher, founded the company in Hoboken, N.J., and moved it to Charlottesville in 1989. The privately held company last year posted revenues of more than $15 million.

In addition to its employment and philanthropic ties to the University, SNL has worked with faculty from McIntire, Darden and the Economics Department to conduct a series of analyst training programs through the SNL Center for Financial Education LLC.

For more information about the use of the gift at the School of Engineering and Applied Science, call Peter Beling, professor of systems engineering, at (804) 982-2066.

For information about the use of the gift at the McIntire School of Commerce, call Patrick Dennis, professor of finance, at (804) 924-4050.

For more information on SNL Securities, contact Mary McDaniel by phone at (804) 977-1888, ext. 352.

CONTACT: Charlotte Crystal, (804) 924-6858

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Contact University News Services at (804) 924-7116. Television reporters should contact the TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.
SOURCE: U.Va. News Services

ALL 1999 NEWS RELEASES

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