ST. NORBERT COLLEGE ANNOUNCES THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
DONALD J. SCHNEIDER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
Initiative Includes Creation of MBA Program
DE PERE, WIS.: The establishment of the Donald J. Schneider School of Business and Economics is becoming a reality due to a donation from the family of one of Northeast Wisconsin’s legendary business leaders and entrepreneurs. Pat Schneider, wife of Don, has donated $7 million to establish the School of Business and Economics, as well as a new Master of Business Administration program, at St. Norbert College.
“We are humbled and honored by Pat Schneider’s extraordinary generosity; this is the largest gift to endow an academic program in the history of the College,” said St. Norbert College President Thomas Kunkel. Don Schneider died in 2012.
“There truly could be no more fitting name for this new business school than that of one of the college’s most influential and successful graduates,” he said. “The Schneider name stands for a commitment to excellence, an enduring sense of civic responsibility, entrepreneurialism, and business innovation. In naming the school for Don Schneider, we will reflect these same values, as they are part and parcel of our Norbertine heritage.”
A portion of the gift will allow the college to launch the M.B.A. program, which is expected to start in the fall of 2015, Kunkel said. But the great majority of the gift will be used to endow the business school and its operation.
The new school will be composed of the college’s existing business administration and economics departments, as well as new faculty and staff who will be hired as part of the expansion and launch of the M.B.A. program. This will include a dean who will oversee the operation of the Schneider School. The school will also have an advisory board made up of prominent area business leaders.
Business classes have been offered at St. Norbert almost from the time it opened in 1898. But Kunkel said the creation of the Schneider School and the M.B.A. program will allow the college’s strong business and economics programs to reach an even higher level of excellence, as well as better serve the Northeast Wisconsin region.
“The Donald J. Schneider School of Business and Economics will provide the highest-quality education for business and not-for-profit leaders,” said Kunkel. “Building on St. Norbert’s firm grounding in the liberal arts and its commitment to ethics instruction, the new MBA program will position the college as the intellectual center of values-based business education in northeastern Wisconsin.”
“Gifts that match the generous donor’s passions and interests with the needs of the college are most meaningful to us and to the people making the gift,” said Phil Oswald, St. Norbert’s vice president for college advancement. “My hope is that the Schneider family and Schneider National – associates find great pride and fulfillment in this donation. Mrs. Schneider’s gift to our endowment is a powerful statement of confidence in the future of St. Norbert College.”
Donald Schneider graduated from St. Norbert with a degree in business in 1957. He was president, CEO and chairman of Schneider National, the now-global transportation, intermodal and logistics provider headquartered in Ashwaubenon. Under his leadership the company grew into a trucking and logistics giant, in large part due to Don Schneider’s commitment to the company’s core values, an unwavering belief that a person’s job delivered personal fulfillment and self worth and the early adoption of innovations that would later become industry standards,
Don Schneider had a longstanding relationship with St. Norbert – as a student, alumnus and trustee, as well as being a longtime adjunct instructor in the area of finance and business administration. He received the St. Norbert College Distinguished Achievement Award in Business in 1979 and the Alma Mater Award in 1991. St. Norbert also honored him with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1999.
He joined the St. Norbert College board of trustees in 1978, a post he held until his death. He was also a member of the board of directors and the executive committee of the Green Bay Packers, and was involved in countless charitable causes.
For more information, or to arrange an interview about the Donald J. Schneider School of Business and Economics and M.B.A. program, contact Mike Counter at mike.counter@snc.edu or 920-403-3089.
