UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — According to the New York Post, Penn State Smeal College of Business alum Dan Ives is “the best dressed man on Wall Street.”

Ives regularly eschews what he calls "cookie-cutter suits" for neon sports coats, patterned shirts and trousers. He said that having fun with fashion helps him navigate the stress of his high-stakes job as managing director and senior equity research analyst covering the technology sector at Wedbush Securities. It’s a job he said has made it clear that “artificial intelligence (AI) is the most important technology since the start of the Internet in the mid-90s.” 

“So many companies and universities are just starting to figure out how they’re going to teach AI or utilize it for students. It’s very important to me and [wife and fellow Smeal graduate] Robyn that Penn State is a leader in this space,” he said.

To help make that goal a reality, the couple recently made a $100,000 commitment to create the Dan and Robyn Ives AI Innovation Initiatives Fund. Their annually funded gift will give Smeal’s eLearning Design and Innovation Group (eLDIG) $20,000 a year over the next five years to explore the challenges and opportunities that AI presents for Smeal students, faculty and staff and to expand educational and experiential learning opportunities around AI.

Renee Ford, a senior instructional designer with eLDIG, said the Iveses’s gift will support curriculum and professional development for faculty and staff, including access to emerging Generative AI (GenAI) tools, which will enhance students’ classroom learning. It will also provide funding for a Smeal GenAI Hackathon — a forum where students can apply GenAI concepts to real-world problems and work collaboratively in an innovative environment.

“This hands-on experience will allow students to not only learn about GenAI but also to implement solutions that leverage GenAI tools and affordances,” she said.

Kitt Camplese, eLDIG’s director of learning design, said that as she looks to the future, she expects students and faculty to be actively engaging with GenAI tools to tackle real-world business challenges, enhancing their learning and problem-solving capabilities to reflect industry trends and standards.

“Our goal is to see GenAI be seamlessly integrated into the curriculum. Dan and Robyn’s generosity is leading the way,” Camplese said. “We’re so grateful to Dan and Robyn for their leadership in this space. Their vision and commitment to supporting GenAI innovation will advance our own commitment to excellence in business education by providing Smeal students and faculty the tools they need to learn and lead in a GenAI world.”

While Dan Ives joined Wedbush Securities in 2018, he has been covering software and the broader technology sector for more than two decades.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Smeal in 1996 and joined HBO as a financial analyst before completing an MBA in finance from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. He joined FBR Capital Markets as an equity research analyst and managing director, focusing on the enterprise software/hardware sectors including cyber security, cloud computing, big data technology and the mobile landscape.

Today, he is a highly sought after tech expert and resource when it comes to understanding trends in consumer behavior and deciphering companies’ direction in tech and software development. He is also a fashion icon, sporting bold colors and prints whether making a TV appearance to share his views on the stock market or working with clients and billions of dollars.

Ives said both his fashion choices and the way he discusses the technology sector are intended to make the market less intimidating.

“The fashion is what they see, but the content is ultimately what’s important,” he said.

Robyn Ives graduated from Penn State with a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1997. She began her career as a staff auditor at Grant Thornton and worked in public accounting for several years before pursuing the CPA (certified public accountant) designation.

She took time off from her career to raise the couple’s two children (now 17 and 20), and she then joined David Ellis Events, an event planning and catering company in the New York metropolitan area in 2017. She has been the senior financial controller since 2021.

The couple, who met as students in 1993, said they are “indebted” to Penn State and Smeal.

“Dan and I both received a great business education at Penn State,” Robyn Ives said. “It’s where Dan proposed to me, and it’s a place that we’ve returned to many times as adults. I think that’s why it is so important to us both that we give back.”

Dan Ives said giving back is something the couple learned during their time in Happy Valley.

“Giving back to Penn State is part of the school’s culture, whether it's your time or your resources, and I think that's really what makes it so special,” he said. “We both want to pass things forward and see new generations of students have that competitive edge in an interview, getting an internship or a full-time job because of their Penn State experience and how they are prepared to work with AI.”

The Iveses’s gift advances the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development; and increasing the University’s impact for students, families, patients and communities across the commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.psu.edu.