MBA News: Wharton Receives $15 Million Gift

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania recently announced that it has received a gift of $15 million from Patty and Jay H. Baker (W ’56) to permanently endow the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center, which will offer innovative programs, stregthen curriculum development and student activity support and offer a variety of outreach initiatives focused on the retail sector. The center will expand on the school’s Baker Retailing Initiative, established in 2002. Jay Baker is a member of the Wharton Board of Overseers and the retired president of Kohl’s Corporation. The struggling economy seems not to be affecting large gifts, which appear to be flowing to top schools these days. The gift from the Bakers comes on the heels of Henry Kravis’s pledge of $100 million to Columbia Business School and the Tata Group’s gift of $50 million to Harvard Business School.