Annabelle Rojas

The dedication of the College of Business Administration’s new building  complex (CBC) on February 9, 2008, culminated years of fundraising as well as construction. Named spaces throughout CBC reflect the commitment that community leaders feel to the college and its role in providing educational opportunities, high-caliber employees, and an array of resources.

One aspect of the fundraising that ran parallel to the quest for building funds has now moved to the forefront: strengthening the college’s endowment through the Securing Our Future Fund.

Donation affords naming opportunity to Egon Zehnder International.

“The Egon Zehnder International Conference Room in the Bank of America Career Management Services Center represents the strength of our relationship with the firm,” said Annabelle Rojas (MBA ’98, BBA ’87), assistant dean, Advancement, Alumni, and Corporate Relations. “Gabriel Sanchez-Zinny, senior partner, serves on our Dean’s Council; his organization recruits from the college, and he has helped us develop connections in the community. This $20,000 donation to the Securing Our Future Fund provides the icing on the cake.”

Gabriel Sanchez-Zinny

“Over recent years the university and the business school have progressed tremendously in serving the local community and the many international companies located in Miami, which parallels our international orientation,” he said.”

Though the building stands as tangible evidence of the widespread support the college enjoys, donors to the endowment can attach their name to a valuable, but less tangible, entity: a named professorship or a scholarship.

Endowments protect programs and scholarships from state budget cuts and enable the college to maintain a steady flow of funding from the interest they earn. In addition, scholarships help the college attract top students drawn to the college’s acclaimed programs but who may obtain more significant financial support from other institutions.

“Like a named space, endowed professorships or endowed scholarships live forever,” Rojas said.

Growth and Excellence Fund also supports students.

Funds designated for scholarships in the college’s Growth and Excellence fund “help us attract exceptional students, further increasing our prestige,” Rojas said. “We are very grateful to Mercantil Commercebank and Espirito Santo Bank for their recent contributions to this fund, which, over a five-year period, will provide scholarships for high-merit students applying to either the International MBA (IMBA) or the Master of International Business (MIB) in the Chapman Graduate School of Business.

Mercantil Commercebank pledged $150,000 over five years and Espirito Santo Bank pledged $75,000 over five years.

Egon Zehnder International Conference Room

“These gifts are critical to the college’s long-term strategy of increasing the value of our programs and their international recognition,” said former Chapman Graduate School of Business Dean José de la Torre. “Since we compete world wide for students in these programs, these donations will help us attract bright, top-level students who might otherwise select business schools with large endowments offering more financial help.”

De la Torre added that the donations help the college generate internships for these students in the donor companies, enable these companies to access the college’s diverse, multinational student population, and provide evidence of the value of our programs to major international organizations.

“We now have six other firms seriously considering joining the pioneers in this scholarship program,” he added.