Record $22-million donation establishes Beedie School of Business at SFU
Feb 09, 2011
Contacts:
Ryan & Keith Beedie: Contact Mat Wilcox, 604.828.7007; mwilcox@wilcoxgroup.com
Andrew Petter, SFU President, 604.808.6530; petter@sfu.ca
Daniel Shapiro, Dean of SFU Business, 778.782.4183; daniel_shapiro@sfu.ca
Derek Moscato, Director, Marketing and Communications, SFU Business, 604.671.4567; derek_moscato@sfu.ca
Don MacLachlan, PAMR, 604.763.3929; donmac@sfu.ca
Ryan and Keith Beedie have donated $22 million to Ryan’s alma mater—SFU Business, which will now be named the Beedie School of Business. This is the largest gift that Simon Fraser University has ever received.
SFU will use the gift to create an endowment supporting students, professorships and research chairs.
“What’s great about our donation is that it’s an investment in the future,” says Ryan Beedie. “The endowment will be there for generations to come, to give students the SFU education that I was fortunate to have had and to enable the university to attract the best teachers and researchers.”
“Receiving a gift of this magnitude is wonderful for the university,” says SFU president Andrew Petter, “but having it come from a former student makes it even more special. I can’t imagine a better way for Ryan and his father to recognize the value of education than to give back to the business school to build its program and make it more available to others. That speaks volumes.”
Daniel Shapiro, dean of the newly named Beedie School of Business, says that the gift will help make the school a global thought leader in areas such as innovation and entrepreneurship, Asia Pacific business studies, risk management and sustainability.
“The students who graduate from SFU’s Beedie School of Business will go on to lead existing Canadian businesses and to create exciting new ones. This gift is really an investment in the economic future of British Columbia and Canada.”
Born and raised in Burnaby BC, Ryan Beedie earned his BBA in 1991 at SFU and his MBA in 1993 at UBC. In 1992, he joined his family’s industrial real estate development firm. Under Ryan’s direction, the firm has grown to be the largest landlord of industrial space in British Columbia. Recently the Beedie Group has expanded its commercial presence into Southern Alberta, residential homes and Beedie Capital Partners.
Related links:
The Beedie School of Business: http://at.sfu.ca/hLwJhq
History of SFU’s School of Business: http://at.sfu.ca/vzBxmU
Ryan Beedie biography: http://at.sfu.ca/Qommbv
Photo of Ryan and Keith Beedie: http://at.sfu.ca/InpoSM
Beedie family backgrounder: http://at.sfu.ca/qVscqQ
Video interview clips: http://at.sfu.ca/ocBZNO