A Place for Ideas: Faraco Family Commons Opens at UChicago Data Science Institute

For Francisco Faraco (MS ’04), CEO and Founder of Faraco Partners, nothing is more important than family.

As a 2004 graduate of the University of Chicago’s Master of Science in Financial Mathematics program, Faraco recalls how his small FinMath cohort became its own sort of family, spending the majority of their days together in Eckhart Hall. 

“The program was a newborn. All it had was a room on the second floor of Eckhart, Room 204. And then the basement was a place for us to study with a small television,” he said. “So that was my life, every day, from 7am to 8pm — the basement and Room 204.”

While the FinMath program was still in its infancy at the time of his studies, it left a lasting impression on Faraco and his career. Fifteen years since his graduation, after rising through the ranks at top investment firms, including J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley, and launching his own wealth management firm, Faraco became motivated to reconnect with the University.

“I wanted to get engaged,” said Faraco. “More than just sending money — I really wanted to have an impact on the ground level.”

He found the hands-on engagement he was looking for in the Industry Professionals-in-Residence program, managed by the Financial Mathematics Career Development Office, where he began mentoring graduate students in the process of finding a job. Over time, his involvement expanded from mentoring students across multiple University divisions to serving on the Physical Sciences Division Advisory Council.

Now, through the help of his most recent gift, Faraco and his family name will provide a different kind of ground-level impact for the UChicago Data Science Institute (DSI). A first-floor gathering space at the DSI’s newly named Lorraine and Yuji Suzuki Center, the Faraco Family Commons will serve as a central hub for the DSI community — a nexus for student and faculty collaboration and new ideas.

For Faraco, that purpose was central to his family’s gift.

“I knew I didn’t want to have just a room on the second floor. I wanted a space where students talk — exchanging ideas, hearing from speakers, spending time together,” he said. “I didn’t want it to be just a ceremonial space. I wanted to help create a living part of the Institute.”

The Faraco Family Commons includes a large seminar room that can accommodate up to 120 people, a smaller seminar room, and a spacious pre- and post-event area — an ideal space for the “great conversations” that Faraco hopes for. “I want people to meet there, to hear speakers that change the way they think, and maybe come up with ideas that they weren’t expecting. And if a year from now, someone remembers an important conversation that happened in that room, that will make me incredibly happy.”

Over the past several years, Faraco’s support of DSI has grown steadily more focused. After initially contributing to the former Dean of the Division of the Physical Sciences Angela Olinto’s discretionary funds, Faraco began directing his family’s philanthropy toward the DSI in 2022. Since then, their giving has included support for a Postdoctoral Fellowship and a named Assistant Professor position.

Today, the Faraco Family Commons represents another step in the evolution of Faraco’s re-engagement with the University of Chicago — investing not only in individuals and their research, but in the interactions and ideas that can emerge when the right individuals come together in the right place.

“As a whole, data science is already very ‘UChicago,’” Faraco said, reflecting on the interdisciplinary nature of the DSI. “Smart people coming at problems from different directions, challenging each other and learning from one another. And now they have a new dedicated space where they can exchange ideas and collaborate.”

Furthermore, the decision to name the space for his family was deeply personal. When asked whether he wanted the room to carry his own name, Faraco — who is also the parent of a current UChicago College student — instead chose “Faraco Family” as a way to recognize both the people who helped shape him and the future generations ahead.

“There’s a legacy that I owe to my father and my mother. They are who helped me become who I am,” he said. “And there’s my wife and my children. I want them to know there’s a sense of responsibility of having our name there as a family. A sense of pride and belonging too, but mostly a responsibility.”

For Faraco, that responsibility is not simply about carrying his family’s name forward, but about helping create opportunities for others to shape what comes next. 

The Faraco Family Commons offers a physical space for that to happen — a place for the DSI community to come together, encounter new perspectives, and engage in conversations that could, perhaps, lead somewhere unexpected.