David R. Hammond, Ph.D. and lecturer for the J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities (JPMCC) at the CU Denver Business School has been awarded the Mineral Economics Award by the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME). The award recognizes Hammonds’ outstanding professional accomplishments and his distinguished contributions to the field of mineral economics.
In addition to lecturing at CU Denver, Dr. Hammond currently serves as a Commissioner on the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET. Dave has over 40 years’ experience in the mining and petroleum industries as a geologist, engineer, financial market analyst and mineral economist. He has had staff and management positions with Shell Oil, Atlantic Richfield, Anaconda Minerals, ARCO Coal, General Electric and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Most recently he was VP of Strategic Planning for International Royalty Corporation, having also served as Interim CFO during IRC’s 2005 Initial Public Offering on the TSX. He holds BS and MS degrees in Geological Engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and the University of Utah respectively, as well as an MBA in energy finance from the University of Denver and a PhD in Mineral Economics from the Colorado School of Mines.
“Being named recipient of the Mineral Economics award has been a real honor and I am deeply grateful for the recognition by my mining industry peers. The award was established by the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers 60 years ago and in turn is also the oldest engineering professional society which began in 1871 and today has around 150,000 members world-wide. I’ve recognized and followed the careers of many of the past recipients; it is really humbling to be considered in their company. I take it as some positive feedback on the “preaching” I’ve done over the years in both industry and academia about good practice in mine financial evaluation and economic analysis,” Dr. Hammond said on the recognition.
Dr. Hammonds’ involvement with the CU Denver Business School started four years ago, at the time the J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities (JPMCC) effort formally kicked off.
“I had been encouraged by several industry colleagues to get involved with the initiative due to my combination of industry and academic experience. My industry background is somewhat unique, in that I’ve had extensive involvement with both the mining and energy sectors, a combination that is fairly rare among resource industry workers. Since I’ve felt for many years that big problems exist with the academic preparation of new business graduates coming into the commodities arena—they essentially had no understanding of how these markets work, especially on the physical product side, and how commodities differ from the equities and bond markets which are the focus of typical University business programs.”
“Throughout my professional career I’ve experienced this on a very personal level—while my science & engineering background gave me a leg up on understanding the physical production side, nothing in my MBA or in my mineral economics doctoral program provided knowledge of business, forcing me to learn the market and financial aspects largely through on the job exposure. This was clearly the common experience of just about all of the industry members of the JPMCC Advisory Board. So I thought establishing a program focused on practical commodity education was a great concept.”
As far as working with the JPMCC, CU Denver Business School faculty and the students, Dr. Hammond has been very impressed.
“I’ve been an adjunct at other business schools and I find students I’ve had in my courses here are much more focused and motivated to learn and get involved in programs of study that lead to interesting as well as rewarding career paths. In fact, a number of students who have taken JPMCC course, who came in with almost no understanding of what commodities are, quickly recognized the potential and have gone on to responsible early-career positions in the sector. To me, a real positive attribute of CU Denver business students is the fact that many are working, often full-time, which clearly is a motivator for course effort and time management, as well as bringing business experience into the classroom. I have even asked a few students to develop classroom exercises based on their current responsibilities to illustrate specific activities of their specialization, such as gas marketing, metal processing contracts, and price hedging.”
Dr. Hammonds’ professional work and industry experience clearly influence how and what he teaches in the classroom. He tries to provide students a firm basic understanding of “how things work” in producing ag, energy and mineral commodities, but then extending through the marketing, transport and other logistical activities.
“I like to add insight and exposure to the analytical tools that are actually being used by commodity sector analysts. My ultimate goal is give students at least a basic, if not detailed, understanding of physical production, market structure, and price setting factors, so that they go into professional jobs with a leg up knowledge-wise on their peers. My industry work also equips me to bring into the course stories about real production/marketing events in mineral or energy commodities to demonstrate how factors you might not think about can have a drastic impact on market conditions,” Hammond concluded.
Please join CU Denver and the Business School in congratulating Dr. Dave Hammond for this prestigious honor.
