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Campaign to Benefit Miami University Business School Receives $4 Million

Posted on: Monday, 13 February 2006, 15:00 CST

By Ken-Yon Hardy, The Journal-News, Hamilton, Ohio

Feb. 13--HAMILTON -- Miami University's Campaign For Love and Honor to benefit the Richard T. Farmer School of Business is scheduled to receive a sizeable financial donation.

Thomas J. Petters, chief executive officer and chairman of Petters Group Worldwide, has committed $4 million to the university.

The gift will be used to create the Jennifer Petters Chair in Asian Business.

"I am pleased to continue to invest in the school of business because I believe in the vision of the school, its strategy of instilling a global perspective in its students and especially its new focus on China," said Petters, who is naming the chair in honor of his daughter.

A search will be launched for an individual of national or international stature who will provide intellectual scholarship and leadership in this area for the school. Qualified candidates will have substantial background in business in Asia, with an emphasis on China, officials said.

Petters Group Worldwide, based in Minnetonka, Minn., has long invested in China and is working to develop a Living and Learning Center in Shanghai.

The proposed residential center would create an educational facility there to serve business and academic communities from the United States and China, officials said.

"Endowing the chair in Asian business will add to our strength and bring a pertinent international focus to our students," said Miami President Jim Garland. "High-caliber faculty are the primary reason for Miami's academic quality, and adding a scholar in an area of enormous growing interest will serve our students as they prepare to be world citizens."

In 2004, a gift of $10 million, also to the Richard T. Farmer School of Business, was used to establish the John T. Petters Center for Leadership, Ethics and Skills Development. Petters' son, John, was a junior at Miami in 2004 when he died while on spring break in Italy.

Tom Petters also has joined the school's business advisory council and board of visitors. Last spring, he was inducted into the MU Academy of Entrepreneurs at the Thomas C. Page Center for Entrepreneurship.

"We truly appreciate Tom's vision and leadership in partnering with us to achieve for the school of business a stronger and more enduring presence internationally, and especially in China, which is one our most important initiatives," said Roger Jenkins, dean of the Richard T. Farmer School of Business.

Petters Group Worldwide includes Fingerhut Direct Marketing, Inc., uBid.com, Polaroid and other companies that manufacture, procure and market consumer merchandise.

MU's For Love and Honor campaign is a $350 million multi-year fund-raising initiative designed to support scholarships, academic programs, facilities and other projects.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Journal-News, Hamilton, Ohio

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Journal-News

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