Butler University receives largest gift in history from Lilly Endowment Butler University President Bobby Fong announced July 8 a $22 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., the largest gift ever received by the University, to support the creation of the Butler Business Accelerator, an initiative aimed at enhancing the education of Butler's undergraduate and graduate business students and aiding Hoosier businesses.
A product of the College of Business Administration's (CBA) "real life, real business" defining theme and principle, the Butler Business Accelerator will use mature Central Indiana businesses as both laboratories and classrooms, giving students the opportunities to develop strategies to promote economic growth in Indiana, while giving firms the benefit of the knowledge and expertise of Butler students and faculty. The result would be a boost to a sector of the Hoosier economy often overlooked by economic development efforts. "Much of the state's economic development effort focuses appropriately on creating, nurturing or attracting fast-growth companies," said Butler University President Bobby Fong. "We see an opportunity to complement those efforts by focusing on mature companies that have stagnated or even declined."
The Accelerator also stands to contribute significantly to efforts to reverse the state's "brain drain." Every student will have the chance to meet and know the Accelerator's clients, their staff and their associates, strengthening the connection between Butler business students and Central Indiana businesses.
The Accelerator staff, which during the early phases will consist of five to eight people, will be led by experienced managers who have been successful in business. The staff will screen prospective clients and select applicants who best stand to benefit from the Accelerator's services. For a consulting fee, selected clients will work with a team consisting of professional staff, faculty, and students, who will then engage them in the following four-step process of improvement.
Bobby Fong became the 20 th president of Butler University on June 1, 2001. The first American-born child of Chinese immigrants, Fong grew up in Chinatown in Oakland, Calif. His father was a butcher, and his mother a seamstress in a sweatshop. At the age of two, Fong's father died, and his mother passed away before he entered college.
Following graduation from Harvard in 1973 with an A.B. in English, magna cum laude, and election to Phi Beta Kappa, Fong returned to California to earn his doctorate in English literature from UCLA in 1978.
Back to News