[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 6035]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO W. RUSSELL RAMSEY

 Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I rise today to congratulate my 
friend Russ Ramsey as he completes his successful tenure as the 
chairman of the Board of the George Washington University. After 15 
years on the board of trustees--six as chairman--Russ will step down 
this June. Over the last few years he has overseen the remarkable 
growth and success of GW and worked to focus the institution on 
opportunities in Virginia, throughout the region, and around the globe.
  He has presided over a renewal in GW's commitment to their Virginia 
Science and Technology Campus. That campus now totals more than 100 
acres and includes 17 research laboratories in areas such as high-
performance computing, renewable energy, and computational biology. 
Perhaps most importantly, it is the home to GW's new School of 
Nursing--the first of GW's 10 schools to be located in the 
Commonwealth. Chairman Ramsey has overseen the creation of a Virginia 
committee of the board of trustees, the development and acquisition of 
new buildings on the VSTC, innovative partnerships with institutions 
like the Textile Museum, and the redevelopment of Barcroft Field in 
collaboration with Arlington County.
  Beyond GW's efforts in Virginia, Chairman Ramsey has worked to 
elevate GW to the status of a world-class institution leading the 
search for GW's 16th president, Dr. Steven Knapp, overseeing a 
remarkable growth in fundraising, and guiding GW to make new 
investments in scientific research, technology transfer and 
entrepreneurship.
  Russ Ramsey is himself a successful entrepreneur, having built 
multibillion-dollar businesses primarily in the fields of investment 
banking and money management. He is most widely known as cofounder of 
Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group. In 2001, he founded Ramsey Asset 
Management, a long/short equity hedge fund based in McLean, VA, where 
he is chairman, CEO, and CIO today.
  He attended the George Washington University School of Business on a 
baseball scholarship and earned his bachelor of business administration 
in 1981. He is a native Washingtonian and lives with his wife Norma and 
their four children in Northern Virginia. Through the W. Russell and 
Norma G. Ramsey Foundation, they are actively committed to 
philanthropic causes dedicated to at-risk families through education 
and health programs. The Ramseys are founding investors of Venture 
Philanthropy Partners, which has invested nearly $80 million in 
nonprofits in the greater Washington area over the last 10 years.
  Please join me in congratulating my friend Russ Ramsey for all of his 
contributions to the George Washington University, the Commonwealth of 
Virginia, and the greater Washington region.

                          ____________________