We recently held our annual Business Advisory Council (BAC) meeting, which was attended by 40 of our 59 BAC members (plus many spouses). The meeting had a lot of lively discussions and very impressive presentations led by several of our faculty that also prominently featured our students, showcasing the educational experience we strive to offer.
During the College update session, Lou Nanni, vice president for University Relations, shared some very good news with the Council regarding benefaction to the College — news that I am also glad to share with you.
Since July 1 (the start of our fiscal year), Mendoza College of Business has already raised $43 million in benefaction, which is an all-time record, surpassing the previous record of $41 million raised in the full 2014-15 fiscal year. These gifts represent the generosity and support of our advisory council members, and their faith in the mission and vision of the College to serve our students, advance our research reputation, develop innovative curricula and formative student experiences, and build a caring, inclusive community.
The gifts included these commitments:
Sean (BBA ’98) and Kim Klimczak made a $25 million commitment to name and endow our business honors program, to be named the Klimczak Family Business Honors Program. The gift consists of two parts: $10 million to advance opportunities for and representation of first-generation, Pell-eligible and other historically underrepresented groups in the program through financial aid; and $15 million to name and endow the program through direct support of student programming and courses.
Sean, the global head of infrastructure for the Blackstone Group, is a first-generation college student himself, so he especially wanted to provide the opportunity for other first-gen students to transform their lives at Notre Dame. During the BAC meeting, Provost John McGreevy recognized the significance of this gift in enabling us to attract some of the best undergraduate students in the world, which will have a ripple effect on the entire University.
Jim (BBA ’78) and Margaret Wade made a $5 million commitment to name and endow the faculty directorship of the Notre Dame Institute for Global Investing, plus another $1.5 million to support the Applied Investment Management program. Jim is a managing partner at M/C Partners, a private equity firm focused on small and mid-size businesses in the digital infrastructure and technology services sectors. A former executive at Coldwell Banker, Margaret serves on numerous boards, including the boards of the Catholic Schools Foundation (along with fellow BAC member Gary Kaneb), Belmont Hill School and Belmont Day School.
The ViBern Board, led by Cindy Hank Stark (BBA ’81), contributed $2 million to establish the ViBern Impact Initiative Endowment for Excellence Fund to support experiential learning opportunities offered through Mendoza with a preference for support for courses and content focused on design thinking and consulting for impact. Cindy, the current BAC chair, has served on the Council for more than 20 years, following a term on the Graduate Studies and Research Advisory Council. ViBern is a charitable board named in honor of her grandparents Viola and Bernard Hank, who have a remarkable story of being married young, overcoming poverty and being committed to serving others. The first College initiative to benefit from this endowment will be the Powerful Means Initiative led by Wendy Angst.
Perry (MBA ’87) and Sue Dellelce made a gift of $3 million to establish the Dellelce Fellowship Fund to support fellowships for graduate students in Mendoza with a preference for students enrolled in the MBA program and/or the Ph.D. programs. Perry is a founder and managing partner of Wildeboer Dellelce LLP, one of Canada's leading corporate finance and transactional law firms. Perry and Sue are active philanthropists who previously established the Dellelce Irish Hockey Shop in the Compton Family Ice Arena and endowed two MBA scholarships.
I’m very grateful for these gifts and especially want to thank our academic advancement director, Natalie Sargent, and the University Relations team for their continuing efforts on behalf of the College. I also greatly appreciate the fantastic efforts by so many others to make our Business Advisory Council meetings a success, including Jean Meade, Beth Smith and Candice Cleveland, and the faculty who led presentations: Shane Corwin, Jason Reed, Jim Otteson and Wendy Angst.
In Notre Dame,
Martijn