Can we count on you to make the impossible possible? Join the many generous donors who support UCLA Anderson as it moves Into the Next.
Anderson joins UCLA’s $4.2 billion Centennial Campaign — the most ambitious fundraising effort ever undertaken by a public university — by launching Into the Next: The Campaign for UCLA Anderson, with a goal of $175 million and another $80 million for improvement of facilities.
As Anderson becomes self-supporting, it is more evident than ever what a critical role the school’s donors have always played. You know their names because they grace the facades of buildings in Anderson’s Pei Cobb Freed and Partners-designed complex. Anderson has them to thank for a world-class library and top-rated programs that produce successful entrepreneurs and executives.
The school is named for the late John E. Anderson, of course, and his wife Marion remains a steadfast supporter. John Anderson (B.S. ’40) attended UCLA on an ice hockey scholarship and became a successful businessman. He also made “doing the right thing” his life’s work, paying summer after summer for underprivileged kids to attend camp. He and Marion infused the campus with an entrepreneurial purpose and a generous spirit. “The lessons and values I learned while attending UCLA shaped my thinking throughout my business and community life,” he once said.
Anderson has Clark and B.J. Cornell to thank not only for the building that bears their name but also for the continued patronage of their grown children, daughter Jill Gwaltney and son Bradford Cornell, UCLA Anderson professor emeritus of finance. “My father loved solving customers’ problems and figuring out new ways to help them achieve their goals,” says Gwaltney, who worked alongside her late father at Forms Engineering Co., the company he founded. “He was fortunate, through philanthropy, to be able to give back to those following in his footsteps.”
James Collins earned an engineering degree from UCLA in 1950, but when he saw the massive crowds lining up for 15-cent hamburgers at the original McDonald’s in San Bernardino, he switched direction and jumped into the nascent fast food industry, launching the successful Collins Foods. A member of Anderson’s Board of Visitors, Collins remains involved in the restaurant business, but his true passion is attending UCLA football and basketball games. “Being part of this university family is more fun than an individual should have,” he says. “There’s something here for everybody.”
Richard S. Ziman, another Board of Visitors member, founded several real estate investment companies, learning that the three most important words in real estate are “timing, timing, timing.” The UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate is a leading center combining education and research, policymakers and private industry. A prolific philanthropist in the areas of education and health care, Ziman says, “Buildings are bricks and mortar, and they come, go or are reinvented. Real estate is the connecting fiber that impacts everyone, and programs involving academia, policy and industry create knowledge and explore and determine solutions guiding the future.”
Son of a janitor, Eugene Rosenfeld (’56) attended UCLA the only way he could: on a $50 scholarship. That “life-changing event” enabled him to graduate and begin his lifelong career in business. His childhood experience helped shape his and his wife Maxine’s philanthropic endeavors at Anderson, where the library bears their name and where Eugene Rosenfeld is on the Board of Visitors. “Without UCLA, my life would have been dramatically different,” he says. “We wanted to give back so that young people have the chance to go to school. I look at it as the same thing that happened to me.”
The renowned Easton Technology Leadership Program and the Easton Technology Classroom are named for Jim L. and Phyllis Easton. Their philanthropic initiatives have boosted UCLA’s fortunes in engineering, business, medicine and sports. Even as Easton annually produces the next generation of tech leaders, Jim Easton’s (B.S. ’59) business philosophy remains simple: “Excellence is expected. Perfection is the goal.”
The commitment of Anderson’s most generous donors is recognized in the current issue of Assets Magazine. Watch soon for the next edition of Assets Digital, which will also be available for iPhone and Android devices.
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