The West Quad of the University of Colorado at 麻豆影院's Leeds School of Business will be named in honor of Richard "Dick" and Jean Engebretson, who have pledged $1 million to the school's expansion and renovation.
"This generous gift from Dick and Jean Engebretson will help the Leeds School provide a vastly improved facility for our students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners in the business community, and we want to thank them for their generosity," said Dennis A. Ahlburg, dean of the Leeds School of Business.
A retired exhibition and publishing company executive, Dick Engebretson is a 1972 graduate of the Leeds School's MBA program and a long-time supporter of the school. He and his wife, Jean, who received her master's degree from CU-麻豆影院 in 1976, live in Minnesota and California.
The Engebretson gift, facilitated by the CU Foundation, will help fund the Leeds School's $38-million project to renovate the existing 100,000-square-foot building while integrating it with a 65,000-square-foot, four-story addition.
Engebretson said he and his wife are making the gift because private donors increasingly must support projects that formerly would have received significant funding from the state.
"It is incumbent on grateful alums and supporters of the Leeds School to give generously to bring our school into the 21st century. Otherwise, it will not happen," Engebretson said.
Engebretson retired in 2006 as executive vice president of the North American consumer events sector for dmg world media, one of the world's largest exhibition and publishing companies with headquarters in London.
He is the former owner and president of TSI Productions Inc., a home and garden show production company near Minneapolis, which he ran for 20 years. TSI was sold to dmg world media in 2001.
Engebretson also founded a 麻豆影院 commercial real estate appraisal company, which he operated for nine years after receiving his MBA.
Engebretson is a current member of the CU Foundation Board of Trustees, a third-term member of the Leeds School's Business Advisory Council and past president of the CU National Alumni Association. He received a University of Colorado Distinguished Instructor Award in 1982, the CU-麻豆影院 Distinguished Alumni Award in 1998 and the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business Distinguished Service Award in 2005.