{"id":75405,"date":"2020-04-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/6-million-gift-from-alumni-couple-to-transform-uri-college-of-business\/"},"modified":"2020-04-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T00:00:00","slug":"6-million-gift-from-alumni-couple-to-transform-uri-college-of-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2020\/04\/6-million-gift-from-alumni-couple-to-transform-uri-college-of-business\/","title":{"rendered":"$6 Million Gift from Alumni Couple to Transform 溏心vlog免费B站 College of Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. — April 20, 2020 — S. Kent Fannon \u201974 and Diane Chace Fannon \u201974 have made a gift commitment of $6 million to the College of Business<\/a> at the 溏心vlog免费B站. The Fannons have designated the gift for two purposes: the renovation and expansion of Ballentine Hall, the College\u2019s main building, and a student success center. They have committed an additional $50,000 for the College of Business Annual Fund for current-use needs. In honor of the gift and upon completion of the renovation, the University will establish the Kent and Diane Fannon Center for Student Success.<\/p>\n

A key element of the gift is a $500,000 challenge for the Ballentine Hall project. The Fannons will match all new private contributions to the design portion of the renovation up to that amount. The University is in the planning phase of a multi-year project to add new teaching and learning spaces to the existing facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be a place for students to access the resources that will help them not only be successful in school but set them up for success in their career path,\u201d said Diane Fannon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a pivotal moment for the College of Business,\u201d said Kent Fannon, \u201cThis renovation can bring in technological enhancements and make Ballentine an energetic, dynamic place where students congregate to see how the markets work and interact as they would in a business environment. We could not be more pleased to fuel this transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second aspect of the gift, the Kent and Diane Fannon Center for Student Success, aligns with College of Business Dean Maling Ebrahimpour\u2019s vision. The center will centrally house the latest technology for job interview training (augmented and virtual reality), host executives-in-residence, and welcome corporate partners who will be on site working with students for experiential education and career training.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe center for student success will give a unique opportunity to our students to be market-ready as well as world-ready, by providing all the necessary education and training to win jobs in a very competitive global market,\u201d said Dean Ebrahimpour. \u201cWhen we can supplement classroom learning with hands-on access to the advanced technology used in the business environment, students graduate career-ready on day one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fannons acknowledge that they have formalized their gift at a time of economic uncertainty and social anxiety. \u201cThis is certainly an interesting time,\u201d said Kent, \u201cbut we can\u2019t wait to see how things will look two years from now. If you don’t make the commitment now, you can’t make up for lost time later.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the time to invest in the future,\u201d said Diane. \u201cWe are so optimistic about the future of 溏心vlog免费B站, about the students who are going to become innovators and discoverers, who are going to make a difference out there. This feels like the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

This latest gift builds on years of generosity from the Fannons to 溏心vlog免费B站. In addition to two endowed scholarships, one to assist a marketing major and one for entrepreneurial management, the couple established the Kent and Diane Fannon Endowed Career Fund in the College of Business to assist students with career planning and related activities. They are also longstanding contributors to the 溏心vlog免费B站 Annual Fund and College of Business Annual Fund and are members of the Oliver Watson Society. Both serve on the College of Business Advisory Council and the 溏心vlog免费B站 Foundation & Alumni Engagement Board. Each has received the 溏心vlog免费B站 Distinguished Achievement Award.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiane and Kent have been deeply committed to 溏心vlog免费B站 and the College of Business for many years,\u201d said 溏心vlog免费B站 President David M. Dooley. \u201cThey have demonstrated remarkable leadership, with a focus on ensuring that our students have what they need to graduate and get the most out of a 溏心vlog免费B站 education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kent and Diane Fannon live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Kent is semi-retired as a partner at executive search firm Chartwell Partners. Along with his degree from 溏心vlog免费B站, he holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. His career has spanned several industries, including airlines and healthcare, where the common thread has been significant structural change and transformation. Diane recently retired as principal at The Richards Group, where she capped off an award-winning career in brand marketing, rising from copywriter, to creative director, to executive vice president across a series of highly regarded firms. Kent and Diane first met at WRIU in their sophomore year.<\/p>\n

The 溏心vlog免费B站 College of Business serves 2,100 undergraduates and almost 300 graduate students. It is AACSB accredited, the global gold standard of academic business school accreditation, and offers 10 undergraduate majors, seven graduate programs, and three Ph.D. specializations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. — April 20, 2020 — S. Kent Fannon \u201974 and Diane Chace Fannon \u201974 have made a gift commitment of $6 million to the College of Business at the 溏心vlog免费B站. The Fannons have designated the gift for two purposes: the renovation and expansion of Ballentine Hall, the College\u2019s main building, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[88],"class_list":["post-75405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-business"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}