John Smith, who graduated from Cornell in 1974 with an MBA, is chairman of CRST International of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a family-run business that is among the 10 largest U.S. freight-trucking firms, according to a Cornell news release.
The wish for family businesses of all kinds to be owned and operated by subsequent generations motivated the Smiths to make this $10 million donation, Cornell said.
“With the Smith’s generous gift, we can now put in place a systematic program to help prepare students for starting, scaling, and managing a family business,” Soumitra Dutta, dean of the Johnson School, said in the release. “The Smith Family Business Initiative will have a profound and lasting impact on family business and graduate business education at Johnson and Cornell.”
The Smith Family Business Initiative will be housed in Johnson’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute, and will fund three key additions to the institute:
· The John and Dyan Smith Professorship of Management and Family Business, who will serve as the initiative’s lead faculty member
· The Smith Family Clinical Professorship of Management, who will serve as director of the initiative
· The Smith Family Research, Program, and Faculty Support Fund, which will support a number of activities, including course offerings, student and alumni programming, marketing and outreach, presentations by visiting executive speakers, and faculty recruitment
“With a focus on family businesses at Johnson, good research will be conducted, educational seminars will address the unique needs of family businesses, and prospective students will be drawn to Johnson because of the family business expertise on campus,” John Smith said in the release.
Wesley Sine, the faculty director of Johnson’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute, is currently developing the Smith Family Business Initiative’s first two programs. One is a course that will focus on the benefits and challenges that are specific to family businesses. Two is the Smith Family Distinguished Family Business Lecture Series, which will bring executives from the world’s most successful family businesses to the Cornell campus.
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Photo Caption: John and Dyan Smith
Photo Credit: PR Newswire / Johnson at Cornell University, Jim Heemstra