{"id":34893,"date":"2020-09-28T10:38:36","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T14:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/?p=34893"},"modified":"2020-10-08T09:22:51","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T13:22:51","slug":"fiu-business-receives-initial-gift-to-establish-500000-endowed-professorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/2020\/09\/fiu-business-receives-initial-gift-to-establish-500000-endowed-professorship\/","title":{"rendered":"FIU Business receives initial gift to establish $500,000 endowed professorship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Catherine
Malcolm Butters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

FIU Business has received a $250,000 gift from noted developer Malcolm Butters and his wife Catherine Butters to support high-level teaching and research at the\u00a0Hollo School of Real Estate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This initial gift, plus an additional $250,000 in matching funds, will establish the Butters Endowed Professorship, a $500,000 endowment to support one professor. To date $83,500 has been raised to match Butters\u2019 contribution for a total of $333,500 towards the $500,000 goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real estate program is one of the leaders in the country,\u201d said Butters (MSIRE \u201983), president and co-founder of Coconut Creek-based Butters Construction and Development, established in 1990. \u201cIn order to expand it and compete at the highest levels, we need to focus on faculty, bringing in and retaining top professors.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January the Hollo School of Real Estate was ranked #1 in the U.S. and #2 globally by the\u00a0Journal of Real Estate Literature<\/em>\u00a0for the fifth consecutive year. The rankings highlight faculty and university contributions to the field of real estate research from 2015-2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis faculty support fund will live in perpetuity and will ensure the Hollo School can retain top faculty talent who excel in research as well as in the classroom, continuing to produce at the highest level,\u201d said Eli Beracha, director of the Hollo School of Real Estate.<\/p>\n

Butters, who recently signed on to co-chair the Hollo Advisory Board, pointed out that FIU Business\u2019 real estate program has evolved extraordinarily since he studied there, attracting top-notch professors and an increasing number of students.<\/p>\n

\u201cFIU has one of the largest concentrations of global researchers on business, economic, and finance related to commercial real estate and housing,\u201d said William Hardin, associate dean of FIU\u2019s Chapman Graduate School and former director of the Hollo School. \u201cStudents are exposed to and get to know “world class” faculty and they learn to play and win on the local and global stages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Butters and his wife Catherine are actively involved in educational assistance programs.\u00a0 In 2019 they established a scholarship at the Hollo School to ease student debt of two MSIRE graduates each year. They fund others dedicated to undergraduates as well as high schoolers in South Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cFIU has been great to me,\u201d Butters said. \u201cI have succeeded because of the tremendous education I received as a graduate student here.\u201d<\/p>\n

He describes the FIU Business real estate program as a springboard, opening doors to internships, contacts and networking. Butters\u2019 first job, in the real estate department of Travelers Insurance, came about from one of those internships. That, he noted, led to many opportunities.<\/p>\n

Today,\u00a0Butters Construction & Development<\/a>\u00a0is one of South Florida\u2019s largest commercial developers. The real estate development and brokerage firm owns and manages 3 million square feet of properties. Butters has received numerous awards over the years, including NAIOP Developer of the Year and the South Florida Business Journal Structures Awards.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the best advice he would give students today?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re really passionate about real estate, stick with it,\u201d said Butters. \u201cRead a lot of articles and connect with others. The more you\u2019re able to socialize in the real estate industry, the more you can move forward\u2026 you get good ideas, learn about different capital sources.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the\u00a0Master of Science in International Real Estate<\/a>, offered in both traditional and online forums, the Hollo School offers an undergraduate degree in real estate, and houses the Jerome Bain Real Estate Institute. Additional donations to fully fund the Butter\u2019s Endowed Professorship can be made at\u00a0https:\/\/business.fiu.edu\/butters-professorship\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FIU Business has received a $250,000 gift from noted developer Malcolm Butters and his wife Catherine Butters to support high-level teaching and research at the\u00a0Hollo School of Real Estate. This initial gift, plus an additional $250,000 in matching funds, will establish the Butters Endowed Professorship, a $500,000 endowment to support one professor. To date $83,500 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":32851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[4665,4663,2836,1652,1814,1956],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34893"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34893"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34907,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34893\/revisions\/34907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}