Gift creates center for policy, finance

Mitch Julis ’77 has made a donation to create the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance as part of the Wilson School. Julis’ gift will support research, course enrichment, undergraduate internships, graduate fellowships and public outreach to ensure the University’s strong presence in the field of public policy, according to a University statement.

President Shirley Tilghman said in the statement that she was enormously grateful for Julis’ generosity and leadership, and that Julis’ gift would enable Princeton to further enhance its strengths in finance, economics and public policy. “The new center will provide our students and faculty, as well as the larger scholarly community, with much-needed tools to analyze and improve our nation’s financial and public policies in the wake of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” she explained.

The Julis-Rabinowitz Center will open for the upcoming academic year with the intention of facilitating research opportunities for Wilson School students and faculty. The center will also support a diverse spectrum of departments ranging from economics and finance to law, politics, history and ethics.

Wilson School dean Christina Paxson explained in the statement that the study of policy and finance is increasingly important in light of the recent economic environment. “With this backdrop, we are poised to teach students to be better stewards of a system that so profoundly affects the daily lives of all Americans, and indeed all citizens of the globe,” she said.

Julis’ gift will also support joint programs between the Wilson School and the University’s Bendheim Center for Finance, developing courses in the University’s undergraduate certificate in finance and the Bendheim Center’s master’s degree in finance programs. Julis will play a role on an external advisory board to support the center.

The creation of the center, named for Julis’ parents, Maurice and Thelma Rabinowitz Julis, is not Julis’ first contribution to the University. In 2007, the Julis family created the Julis Foundation Preceptorship.

Julis, an investment executive and cofounder of Canyon Capital Advisors, concentrated in the Wilson School and has served on the advisory council of the economics department. Julis explained in the statement that both of his parents were educators in the New York school system in the 1970s financial crisis, a situation very similar to today’s economic circumstances.

“Boom-bust cycles and their adverse social consequences are going to continue to occur unless public policy makers develop a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of our financial system and can formulate appropriate solutions,” he said. “My family is privileged to be able to help Princeton strengthen its ability to educate the next generation of public policy makers in this critical area that so affects our nation’s future.”

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Julis also expressed his gratefulness to the University and Wilson School professor Uwe Reinhardt for providing him with a solid foundation for his career in finance and investing.

“Mitchell Julis understands the value of teaching policy students about the ins and outs of the financial world — he appreciates that financial literacy is essential to make good policy in today’s world,” Reinhardt said in the statement.

The gift is a part of the University’s Aspire capital campaign.