THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 12, 1995 TAG: 9511110644
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
In January, the Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business Administration will move into its new home - a palatial and elegant, red brick complex on a hill.
One of the people who future Darden students and executive education participants can thank for the $36 million, five-building complex is Thomas A. Saunders III, affectionately called ``the $10 million man'' by students.
Saunders, a 1967 Darden graduate and general partner of Saunders Karp & Co., and his wife, Jordan Horner Saunders, donated a $10 million trust to the Darden School. It's the largest single gift in the business school's history and one of the largest cash gifts in the university's history.
They had previously donated $3 million to Darden for the construction of the building and will be honored by having the main building named Saunders Hall.
By earmarking his gift to establish an academic center for executive education, Thomas Saunders, a Norfolk native, chose to emphasize the other half of the Darden School's mission and its growth sector: continuing education for working managers and executives.
``The MBA was thought of as the end of the formal education,'' said Saunders, who serves as chairman of both the Darden School Foundation Board of Trustees and the Campaign for Darden. ``Today, a fairer description is it's the beginning of your business education.''
Darden offers 60 executive-education programs and enrolls more than 2,500 participants throughout the year.
More than $10 million of Darden's annual revenue in the 1995 fiscal year comes from executive education, said C. Ray Smith, associate dean for executive education. That's up 40 percent in 6 years, he said.
``The total market is going to be growing,'' Smith said. ``It's not just a few business schools.''
Proponents of such programs say many benefits result from executive education, including mutual education of faculty and participants, particularly regarding trends in the workplace and new management theories. Such programs also promote better corporate connections with schools, which may result in joint projects and internships for MBA students.
Custom courses, designed specifically for managers at one company, cover areas like operations, finance, and international and global issues. And there are increasing ways to deliver such information - through distance learning, video conference calls and Internet hook-ups.
``I think where we're headed . . . is a real continuum,'' Saunders said. ``If the school is going to maintain its position and stay at the top of its peer group institutions, it's got to have this story of the physical plant, this investment in technology, a big investment in curriculum , in new products and new offerings.
``That's what I think the new Darden is all about. We'll continue to see a blurring of the distinction of the MBA and executive format and education. We'll increasingly see them as the same, offering the same product, designed for a different user.''
``Tom's had a substantial influence over that program for quite a while,'' said John Casteen, president of the University of Virginia. ``The gift Tom Saunders gave here, the stipulation is to use distance learning to provide something like lifelong learning with executives. The demand to offer those distance sites is a challenge to a school unified as we are around the idea that the campus experience is essential to the education process.''
Saunders is a founding partner of Saunders Karp & Co., a New York-based merchant bank. Before launching his own firm, he spent 22 years at Morgan Stanley & Co., where he served as managing director from 1974 until his departure in 1989.
Saunders' wife, Jordan, spearheaded the fund-raising gala that kicked off the University of Virginia's overall capital campaign. MEMO: Main article about Darden School is on page D1.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Thomas A. Saunders III
KEYWORDS: UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA COLGATE DARDEN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
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