A Wharton alumnus and retired department store chain president, together with his wife, has given $15 million to permanently endow an interdisciplinary retail industry research center at the school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania announced this week.
The gift, from Patty and Jay Baker, W’56, will expand the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center, established in 2002 to create partnerships between retail industry leaders and Wharton faculty, students and alumni. Alumnus Jay Baker is a member of the Wharton Board of Overseers and retired president and director of Kohl’s Corporation, the Milwaukee-based department store chain.
An outgrowth of Wharton’s Baker Retail Initiative, the expanded Baker Retailing Center will support innovative programming for graduate and undergraduate students, cutting-edge industry research, enhanced student activities and outreach initiatives to draw greater attention to the retail sector.
“The Baker Center offers an increasingly important and popular career choice for both our MBAs and undergraduates,” Wharton Dean Thomas Robertson said in a statement. “With this gift, the Center will continue to be the premier source of knowledge within the retailing industry,” he continued, adding that Wharton’s goal is to impact the welfare of retail on both a national and global level.
The gift continues a record stretch of significant awards this month to top business schools. Also this month, Harvard Business School received $50 million from India’s Tata Group to build a new facility on its campus and Columbia Business School received $100 million from alumnus Henry Kravis to establish a new home for the business school on Columbia’s Manhattanville campus.
For more on the Bakers’ $15 million gift to Wharton, click here.
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