Joe LeBlanc
ConocoPhillips, the nation’s third-largest integrated energy company, has donated $35,000 to the Freeman School over the last year to support the school’s energy trading program.
In November 2009, the company donated $25,000 to support the work of Joe LeBlanc, clinical professor of finance and director of the Trading Center, Freeman’s state-of-the-art electronic trading classroom. More recently, in March 2010, the company donated $10,000 to the Trading Center for its Student Enrichment Program.
The $25,000 donation was part of ConocoPhillips’ Faculty Sponsorship Program, which was established in 2008 to build long-term relationships with university faculty members to support the company’s recruiting efforts.
The $10,000 gift was intended to provide support for students interested in pursuing careers related to energy trading.
According to LeBlanc, the gifts will enable the Freeman School to enhance the energy trading program in a variety of ways, including funding scholarships and teaching assistantships, purchasing new hardware and software, and underwriting events such as the annual Tulane Energy Trading Competition.
“Developing and maintaining such an advanced trading program requires a lot of resources,” says LeBlanc. “We just recently built a new trading model that enables students to trade directly from Excel to the CME, which no other school has. We probably have one of the most advanced energy trading programs in the country, and that’s a direct result of the support we’ve received from companies like ConocoPhillips.”
