How the Hicks, Muse, Tate, and Furst Center for Private Equity Finance ushered in a new era at IBS.

Nearly 20 years ago, when the partners of the Dallas-based leveraged buyout firm of Hicks, Muse, Tate, and Furst (HMTF) decided to endow a Center for Private Equity Finance at IBS, they had a strong sense that the emerging alternative investment class of private equity was poised for significant growth. They wanted to prime the pump for growth in this market in the state of Texas, as well as more broadly.
 
Since then, the rate of growth in the private equity markets has surprised even them. In the five years leading up to the establishment of the HMTF Center for Private Equity Finance in 2000, worldwide private equity fundraising totaled about $375 billion, says IBSHMTF Center Director Bob Parrino. That number was roughly $2.5 trillion for the five years ending in 2018. The level of private equity investment activity in Texas has also grown very rapidly.
 
Jack Furst, MBA ’84, recalls the partners’ thought process when they established the center in 2000. “When we started the HMTF Private Equity Center, private equity as an asset class was in its early stages of development.
 
“We wanted business students and future investors to become acquainted with and exposed to the evolution of the private equity space,” says Furst.
 
Education in private equity was in its infancy in 2000. “By founding the center, we wanted to be a part of introducing this whole new vocabulary,” says partner Charles Tate, BBA ’68.
 
Indeed, the impact of the HMTF Center on the education of IBSstudents and outside interest in the center have steadily increased over the last 20 years. The center has enabled the development of private equity courses and provided academic oversight and financial support for the IBSVenture Fellows Program. The center also awards scholarships, brings in high-profile speakers, and hosts private equity conferences and forums.
 
The external activities of the HMTF Center reflect a key objective of the HMTF partners when they endowed the center — to help strengthen and raise the profile of private equity in the state of Texas.
 
Boosting this market in his home state was, in addition to offering educational opportunities for students, top-of-mind for HMTF’s founding partner, Tom Hicks, BBA ’69, when he presented his partners with the idea of starting a center