UH Mānoa’s Shidler College lands $500,000 gift to endow finance professorship

Two longtime University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa finance professors have given $500,000 to establish an endowed professorship at the Shidler College of Business, the university announced.

The Dr. S. Ghon Rhee and Dr. Rosita P. Chang Distinguished Professorship of Finance is intended to support faculty research and help the college recruit and retain finance faculty.

Rhee, the K.J. Luke Distinguished Professor of International Banking and Finance, and Chang, professor emerita of finance and co-director of the college’s Asia-Pacific Financial Markets Research Center, have taught at Shidler for decades. In 1993, the two co-founded the Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, a scholarly journal focused on Asia-Pacific finance research.

Rhee also served as founding chair of the Asian Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee. UH credited Chang’s research with helping shape understanding of global financial markets.

“We sincerely hope that this endowed professorship plays a key role in promoting academic research on Asia-Pacific financial markets,” Rhee said in a statement. “Our goal is for academic researchers globally to look to UH as a leader and bridge in this important field.”

Shidler College Dean Vance Roley said the gift reflects the pair’s decades of teaching and scholarship at the college.

“This gift is a reflection of their remarkable legacy and vision,” Roley said. “It will help attract and retain outstanding faculty, foster innovative ideas and strengthen the college’s position as a global leader in Asia-Pacific finance.”

Those interested in supporting the Shidler College of Business can contact Jennifer Lieu, director of development, at Jennifer.Lieu@uhfoundation.org or call 808-956-3597.

Shidler College, founded in 1949, was renamed in 2006 after alumnus Jay H. Shidler, founder and managing partner of The Shidler Group, following his $25 million gift that year. Shidler has since given the college roughly $238 million in cash, land leases and in-kind donations — the largest individual gift to UH Mānoa and the second-largest known gift to a US public university business school, according to the university. The college is accredited by AACSB International and offers the state’s only AACSB-accredited graduate business program with a presence in Vietnam.