The ICMA Centre celebrated the start of work on the Centre's extension and the new University of Reading Business School building last week. The Commencement Ceremony which was followed by a champagne reception was attended by more than 200 guests, including businesses from the City and all over the world, as well as staff and alumni.

The first turf was cut by Guests of Honour, René Karsenti, Executive President of the International Capital Market Association, Charles Jennings, Global Head of Learning at Reuters and Peter Erskine, CEO of Telefonica O2.

The extension is made possible by the generous donation by ICMA of £5million. The Centre's association with ICMA began in 1991 and the University's finance department was renamed the ICMA Centre with a mission to teach and research in the area of Capital Markets and ICMA continues to work closely with the Centre.

The Centre's new facilities will include an additional 50-seat dealing room (sponsored in part by Reuters), a 170-seat lecture theatre as well as new seminar rooms, dedicated research area and media centre. The building will also be fitted with state-of-the-art audio and visual technology allowing us to podcast and web stream our lecture content.

Professor John Board, Director of the ICMA Centre, said, "The start of construction of the extension is a key event and comes at an exciting stage of our growth and development. The new building will provide a superb learning environment in which to drive forward and deliver on our commitment to academic excellence, practical relevance and employability."