Bernard Baruch Dinner Raises a Record $1.96 Million for the Baruch College Fund

Bernard Baruch Dinner Raises a Record $1.96 Million for the Baruch College Fund

April 30, 2026

Baruch hosted its annual Bernard Baruch Dinner on April 22 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom, bringing together more than 430 alumni, donors, and friends in support of the College. The evening raised a record-breaking $1.96 million for the Baruch College Fund (BCF), making it the most successful Bernard Baruch Dinner in the institution's history.

Proceeds support critical areas of need across the College, such as financial aid, emergency grants, technology assistance, career services, and faculty initiatives.

An additional $663,800 was raised at the event to support student participation in the Washington Semester program, unlocking generous matching gifts from BCF trustees Austin Marxe ('65) and Buzzy Geduld. The program gives graduate students in the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs public policy experience through academic coursework and internships in legislative offices on Capitol Hill, federal agencies, and nonprofit organizations.

In his remarks, Baruch President S. David Wu reflected on Baruch's top global and national rankings, and student achievements. He further pointed to the launch of the Baruch AI Leadership Initiative and Applied Intelligence Lab that support the College's capacity to lead, teach, and operate effectively in an AI-driven world.

President's Medal: Dov C. Schlein

Dov C. Schlein ('70, MBA '75), managing partner and co-founder of NuVerse Advisors LLC, received the President's Medal. This award is Baruch's highest honor given to individuals whose leadership, integrity, and service have advanced the mission of the College in truly extraordinary ways.

Prior to founding NuVerse Advisors, Sclein was an advisor to the group chairman of HSBC Holdings on Israel. Before that, he served as the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Republic New York Corporation and Republic National Bank of New York.

Schlein joined National Bank of New York as a Vice President in 1976. Over the next 24 years, he served as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, and President of Republic National Bank of New York. In 1998, Republic New York Corporation and Republic National Bank of New York appointed him as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of both the Bank and Corporation. Prior to his tenure with Republic, Schlein spent six years in KPMG's audit department.

He received his Bachelor of Business Administration with Honors in Accounting in 1970, followed by CPA accreditation and a Master of Business Administration in 1975 from Baruch's Zicklin School of Business.

In addition, Schlein's professional memberships have included the Economic Club of New York, the Bankers Roundtable, and the New York Commodity Exchange. Schlein has been a trustee of the Baruch College Fund since 1988, serving as President of the Board, Chair of the Budget Committee, and currently as Chair of the Governance, Nominating, and DEI Committee.

Distinguished Faculty Award: Jim Gatheral

Presidential Professor Jim Gatheral from the Master of Financial Engineering program was presented with the Distinguished Faculty Award. He holds a BSc in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy from the University of Glasgow and a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Cambridge.

After completing his doctorate, Gatheral spent 27 years in the financial industry, eventually serving as Managing Director at Merrill Lynch, where he headed the Equity Quantitative Analytics Group. During his industry career he worked as a trader, risk manager, and quantitative analyst, based at various times in London, Tokyo, and New York.

Joining Baruch in 2010, Gatheral has taught and mentored hundreds of students in the Baruch MFE Program. His teaching draws directly on his industry experience, bridging financial theory and market practice.

Gatheral's research spans volatility modeling and market microstructure. He is known for the SVI (Stochastic Volatility Inspired) parameterization of implied volatility surfaces, and for foundational work on rough volatility - modeling volatility dynamics using fractional processes - for which he and École Polytechnique Professor Mathieu Rosenbaum received the Quant of the Year award from Risk.net. This work culminated in the top-cited papers "Volatility is Rough" and "Pricing under Rough Volatility."

In market microstructure, his paper "No-Dynamic-Arbitrage and Market Impact" has been influential in understanding the constraints that no-arbitrage conditions place on price impact models. He is the author of The Volatility Surface: A Practitioner's Guide (Wiley, 2006), which has become a standard reference for researchers and practitioners working on equity derivatives and volatility modeling. Gatheral serves as Joint Editor-in-Chief of Quantitative Finance and is a popular invited speaker at conferences worldwide.

Watch: Relive the unforgettable moments from the 2026 Bernard Baruch Dinner.

Support the Baruch College Fund

Contributions to BCF are ongoing and support Baruch's ability to provide a high-caliber education and open the door to the world for students who might otherwise be denied that opportunity.

Gifts will also help support critical areas of urgent need, including financial aid, emergency grants, technology assistance, career services and faculty support.

Donate to the BCF.

For more info, visit the BCF website.