With $20M Gift, USC Marshall To Launch Global Supply Chain Institute 

The USC Marshall School of Business has announced that Randall R. Kendrick ’86, the founder, president, and CEO of Xebec, has made a $20 million gift to support its global supply chain management program as the Randall R. Kendrick Global Supply Chain Institute.

“Randy’s story shows the transformative power of education,” says USC President Dr. Carol L. Folt. “He arrived at USC as a first-gen college student, and he went on to create one of our nation’s top businesses. His generous gift will expand Marshall’s existing academic programs, and help future generations of USC students follow their own paths to professional fulfillment.”

The gift will support initiatives including:

• Endowing the Institute’s Director
• Creating a new faculty chair and faculty fellows in supply chain management
• Providing scholarships for students in the GSCM.MS program
• Supporting research assistantships on faculty supply chain projects
• Establishing a Marshall-branded supply chain case collection
• Founding a new Block Chain in Supply Chain consortium

The gift will also expand existing academic programs that propel talented students into careers in supply chain management, including a progressive degree program in which Marshall and Viterbi undergraduates can take a fifth year to earn a master’s degree in Global Supply Chain Management. With a successful 100% job placement for graduates, the master’s degree has been ranked the No. 1 online business program according to U.S. News & World Report for the past two years.

“I can truly say that my USC education was the foundation that prepared me to build Xebec to where it is today as one of the country’s largest real estate asset managers, focused on the industrial/logistics sector,” says Kendrick.

Emory Goizueta announces $5 million gifts to establish major scholarship for women

Goizueta Business School at Emory University on Thursday (July 8) announced a $5 million endowment to establish the Rosemary and John Brown Family Scholars Program open to alumnae of Spelman College and Agnes Scott College. The gift is presented by the Browns, parents of alumna Sarah Beth Brown.

According to Fortune 500 research, although women make up 50.8% of the United States population (39% of whom are women of color), females represent a record high of only 7.4% of top leadership roles of Fortune 500 companies. In Fortune 500 financial services companies, women hold more than half of the financial manager and accountant roles, but ultimately only 12.5% rise to become chief financial officers.

Brown Family Scholars admitted into any of Goizueta’s graduate programs “will benefit from small-by-design program classes known for a collaborative culture and highly experiential learning model,” the school says in its announcement. “This will help scholars to formally build camaraderie and continue with mentoring and networking during the remainder of their studies.”

“Goizueta is proud to launch this exciting initiative to increase representation of women in business,” says Goizueta’s interim Dean Karen Sedatole. “Women and minorities often are underrepresented in graduate business programs. This imbalance negatively affects students, business schools, and the larger business community. This generous endowment allows Goizueta to execute its bold vision to meet tomorrow’s challenges and reimagine what business education could and should be.”

UNC Kenan-Flagler launches student competition in blended finance & impact investment 

The Center for Sustainable Enterprise at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School announced today a new student competition supporting the center’s Invest for the Future initiative. Through the competition students will learn about social impact and environmental-themed financing and investment models, such as blended finance and impact investing. This initiative is in partnership with Bank of America, a founding sponsor of both Invest for the Future and the new competition.

The competition, titled Launching Investment for Future Transformation or LIFT, is a pioneering blended finance challenge asking students to propose investment and finance solutions that focus on using sustainability to drive social equity and economic mobility.

Students will learn about blended finance, an approach that helps to stimulate and mobilize additional private capital to scale sustainable development and can include public or philanthropic funding. The initiative aims to expand knowledge about how blended finance can help scale impact for sustainability projects that might have been unable to gain funding due to potential associated risks. Students will receive coaching on how to develop sustainable solutions; and build deeper expertise in these financing structures.

“While students learn about these important, complex issues, they will research, explore and propose solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges,” says Jeff Mittelstadt, executive director of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise and a professor of the practice of strategy and entrepreneurship at UNC Kenan-Flagler. “They also will start building a global network of like-minded students and business leaders.”

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