posted on Oct. 1: School of Business trading centre gets new name today

Described as a no-nonsense businessman whose favourite expression was “Do it now,” the late Allen H. Gould would no doubt be pleased to know that effective today, Oct. 1, the Educational Trading Centre in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business will be known as the Allen H. Gould Trading Floor.

A ceremony for the unveiling of the Allen H. Gould Trading Floor takes place today at 4 p.m. Tours of the trading floor will be provided.

The trading centre will be officially renamed in recognition of the $500,000 gift from the Allen and Milli Gould Family Foundation. The trading floor is a unique teaching facility allowing students to acquire hands-on experience through the use of state-of-the-art systems that deliver real-time data from the financial markets of North America. The trading floor at McMaster is the only one of its kind in English-speaking Canada.

Gould, an investor in the stock market, and his wife Milli are well known in Hamilton not just for their philanthropy but also for their successful retail operation, Milli's Boutique.

Vishwanath Baba, dean of the School of Business said, “This generous gift from a prominent Hamilton family will help to maintain the high standards that we have worked so hard to achieve at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business. We are proud to have Mr. Gould's name on our trading centre — it is a gift that will endure for generations to come.”

The 90-square-metre (1,000-square-foot) facility resembles an actual trading floor in a brokerage operation. It features 20 computer work stations and two large digital display boards that provide up-to-the-minute market data.

Nicole Isava, a recent graduate of the honours commerce program said, “The experience I gained in the trading centre helped make a difference when I was looking for employment. Because I already knew how a trading floor operated I was more productive much earlier.”