FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  Susie P. Gonzalez
susie.gonzalez@trinity.edu

Aug. 24, 2009

Trinity University Professor, Alumnus Open and Close Stock Exchanges

Professor Cooley and Sardar Biglari ’99 on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

SAN ANTONIO – Teaching college students about the ups and downs of the stock market is already enjoyable for Philip L. Cooley, the Prassel Distinguished Professor of Business Administration, but the highlight of his summer was being in New York to ring the opening and closing bells for two stock exchanges.

In mid-August, he and a former student – now a business partner – rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange and the closing bell for the NASDAQ.

Professor Cooley credited Sardar Biglari ’99, who as a student was in the inaugural Student Managed Fund class that he teaches, with approaching the exchanges for permission to sound the bells. “They were delighted to have us involved,” Professor Cooley said.

That’s because both men hold leadership positions in two companies, Steak ’N Shake and Western Sizzlin’ – Mr. Biglari as chairman and CEO for both and Professor Cooley as vice chairman. 

Using “ticker-speak” vocabulary, Professor Cooley said SNS is traded on the NYSE, while WEST occupies the NASDAQ board. The two companies have signed a non-binding letter of intent to merge, and if the transaction goes through, the resulting entity would have to pick one or the other exchanges. “That’s the competitive dynamic in the background,” Professor Cooley said.

Professor Cooley and Sardar Biglari ’99 ring the closing bell at the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. Photo: © 2009, The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.

To curry favor with the company officers, both exchanges offered meeting rooms or auditoriums where stockholders could gather to receive corporate updates. The WEST meeting, for example, drew 50 shareholders to the offices on Times Square. Professor Cooley called the turnout “great for a small company. Sardar gave an opening statement and then we had a Q&A session.”

As the trading day drew to a close, it was on to the platform, shareholders alongside them, to ring NASDAQ’s closing bell. “We loved that; what a nice way to treat them,” he said.

All the news was good, he said. At both companies, sales are up, profits are up, and debt is down. “We have turned the company around,” he said. “The time in New York was busy. Incidentally, we were told that opening and closing the two exchanges in one day has never been done before.”