Esteemed Economist Fills Business Chair

NEW YORK – George M. von Furstenberg, a former International Monetary Fund division chief and life-long academic, will be the first occupant of the Robert Bendheim Chair in Economic and Financial Policy at Fordham’s Graduate School of Business. “We are pleased to attract a policy practitioner and scholar of the stature of George von Furstenberg to our economic and finance faculty,” said Dean Ernest J. Scalberg. “We look for him to provide leadership for the school as we expand our international presence beyond Asia and Europe to Latin America.” Von Furstenberg, a titled professor from Indiana University, has focused his work over the last several years on the financial aspects of the integration of the Americas, and he is the current president of the North American Economics and Finance Association (NAEFA). He will likely be involved in major policy-making groups that contribute to U.S. economic policy in Latin America, Scalberg said. Von Furstenberg, 58, served as the senior staff economist for the U.S. President’s Council on Economic Advisers in the 1970s, was the chief of the Financial Studies Division of the Research Department for the IMF in Washington D.C. from 1978 to 1983 and was a visiting senior economist for the U.S. State Department in 1989. He has published several articles and books, including Economic Summit Declarations 1975-89: Examining the Written Record of International Cooperation in 1992 and Learning from the World’s Best Central Bankers: Principles and Policies for Subduing Inflation, published in 1999. Von Furstenberg received his bachelor’s degree from Columbia School of General Studies, was a pre-doctorate fellow at the Brookings Institution and received his Ph.D. from Princeton University. The Robert Bendheim Chair is a newly created position at Fordham endowed by the Leon Lowenstein Foundation, which also provides funding for medical research and New York City public schools and youth programs. The Lowenstein Foundation president, Robert Bendheim, is a member of Fordham’s board of trustees. Fordham’s College of Business Administration was established in 1920 and the Graduate School of Business Administration in 1969. Both have been recognized nationally for their quality, innovation and the comprehensiveness of their programs, which prepare graduates for global competition. The graduate school’s part-time MBA program is ranked 14th by U.S. News & World Report.