With support from a Lilly Endowment grant, Dr. Tarek Zaher, Professor of Finance at the Scott College of Business, and Dr. Brien Smith, then Dean of the Scott College of Business, co-founded the Student Managed Investment Fund Consortium (SMIFC) in July 2013. The Consortium was established with 18 member institutions, each operating an active student-managed investment fund (SMIF). By June 2025, membership in SMIFC and its regional chapter, SMIFC South, had grown to 308 institutions. The most significant growth occurred between June 2020 and June 2025, thanks to the support of Dr. Terry Daugherty, the current Dean of the Scott College of Business.
SMIFC aims to enhance student learning and scholarship, promote best practices in investment management among member institutions, foster student networking and idea exchange, and maintain a lasting repository of relevant literature and student experiences. With a strong emphasis on student leadership and research, the Consortium fills a unique role in higher education—one few institutions address beyond traditional student competitions.
Tarek Zaher
Professor of Finance, Scott College of Business, Indiana State University
Dr. Tarek Zaher is a professor of Finance at Indiana State University. He has also held a number of professional positions in the industry and provided consulting services to a number of international institutions, including the World Bank, the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan, and the Academy for Educational Development in the United States and the Ministry of Work in Dubai. He has also offered a number of seminars in investment and international financial management at a number of institutions around the world.
Dr. Zaher is the managing director of the Student Managed Investment Fund Consortium (SMIFC) and president of SMIFC South, and the supervisor of the investment club at Indiana State University. He also manages and supervises other international portfolios for individuals and institutions. Dr. Zaher’s research has been published in numerous prestigious professional and scholarly journals, including the Journal of Financial Research and the Journal of Banking and Finance. Dr. Zaher received three research awards from professional conferences and one research certificate of excellence. He has been honored multiple times by the Scott College of Business and Indiana State University, including the Faculty Research Award and Distinguished Paper Award in 2002, the Exemplary Service Award in both 2002 and 2005, the Movers and Shakers Award in 2018, and the Community-Based Learning and Scholarship Award in 2024.