Capital benefactor

Graduate students at UC Irvine will soon have the opportunity to hit

it big on the stock market with investment guru Chuck Martin’s money.

Martin, who founded several venture capital and investment firms

before retiring three years ago, is putting up $1.5 million for

graduate students who come up with good proposals.

Five teams of four or five MBA students will get $300,000 from

Martin to execute their plans -- if they sound inviting enough to

Martin.

The UCI trustee’s offer has garnered overwhelming response from

business students, and Martin said he’s looking forward to hearing

some good, big ideas from young minds.

The Daily Pilot caught up with Martin to hear his thoughts on the

contest, the stock market and Arnold Schwarzenegger, among other

things.

Where did you grow up, and how would you describe your childhood?

I grew up in a small town in the Midwest (Willard, Ohio). My mom

and dad were hard-working folks with good values, but very poor.

What sparked your interest in the stock market, and how old were

you when you started paying close attention to it?

I became interested in the stock market at a very young age. I did

not have any money, so I would study companies and play the market

with paper money as a young teenage boy. I enjoyed the game of it. It

was like playing Monopoly, only with company stocks.

Describe your most exciting trade.

I am not into trading, I am an investor. While you may not see the

difference, a trader buys and sells on short timeframes. He or she is

seldom interested in the fundamentals of the business. I like to find

very good businesses that can be bought [through the company’s stock]

at a reasonable valuation and hold them for appreciation in value as

the company continues to succeed.

How long have you considered putting on this contest with UC

Irvine students?

I have been putting this contest together for UCI MBA students

over about the last three months. It has just now been announced and

there is a flood of interest among the students. The orientation

session has been scheduled for Feb. 28 and student investment

proposals are due by April 9.

Do you see similarities between college business students now and

students in your college years?

When I went to college, the best and brightest went into

engineering or medicine. Only the weaker students [intellectually]

went into the business school. If you flunked out of engineering, you

would transfer into the business school. That’s all very different

now. Young men and women are very interested in business and it

attracts a lot of talented young people.

What do you think about the quote from an MBA student in the Jan.

16 Daily Pilot article about the contest that reads, “This is a

chance to prove what I learned and do it on someone else’s money.”

Does that sound like something you may have said if you were in his

position and someone else was in yours?

This program is a great opportunity for students to learn about

companies with some real money on the line. Mostly, students learn

from case studies and simulations in school. With real consequences

to their decisions, I believe the learning process will be enhanced

and be a practical supplement to what they learn in the classroom.

The only flaw that I see in the program is that the students are not

at-risk with their own money. That’s not real life! However, they do

have to sell their ideas to me and, if they do not do their homework

or if the quality of their thinking is poor, they will not get

funded.

What are you looking forward to most when the contest begins on

May 15?

I am very hopeful to see a lot of good, quality thinking by these

students and good ideas about growing businesses.

What do you expect to be the biggest roadblock?

Student participants are young and enthusiastic, but have little

experience or seasoning in investing. It will be a disappointment if

I don’t get at least five teams with fundable proposals.

Where do you see the market heading in this election year?

It will probably be a choppy market. Many of the fundamentals are

in place for our economy to show solid improvement. However, the

market question is what happens when the stimulus runs out next year

and interest rates move higher? Also, we live in a more dangerous

world where the risk of adverse events is high. Also, there is a very

good chance that Iraq is going to turn out to be a huge mess later

this year.

You retired three years ago, but this venture sounds like quite a

lot of work. Do you plan to continue finding work that you’re proud

of, even in retirement?

I may be retired, but I am very active. The development of our

Orange County community is of high interest to me. I serve as a

trustee of both UC Irvine and Chapman University and I am committed

to the advancement of both. My wife, Twyla, is very active in the

development initiatives for Chapman’s top-ranked school of film and

television and I support her in that. I serve on the Regent’s

Investment Committee for the University of California. It takes a

very big effort to manage my own investment program. Twyla and I are

very involved in the arts. I have a full plate and will never get

bored.

What do you see in college students these days that you’d like to

change?

The dot-com bust was the best thing that has happened for young

people. The late ‘90s were characterized by greed, impatience and the

view that you could make a quick buck and not have to work hard or do

something of significant value for business or society. That is dead

wrong, and today’s students are getting back to reality. We have a

great new generation coming along and I am enthusiastic about the

promise that they bring to our society.

If you had the opportunity to be 22 again, what would you do

differently?

I grew up in a life of hardship, but I earned my way in life. It’s

easier to achieve coming from that background than from one of

privilege. I would not change a thing.