Argyros School Receives $2.5 Mil For Data Analytics MBA
Chapman University’s Argyros School of Business and Economics recently announced an impressive gift that will enable MBAs to pursue even greater opportunity in the field of data analytics.
The $2.5 million gift was given by the Kay Family Foundation, which has lent its support to many of the university’s most valued programs. The donation was received just five years after the Orange Country-based foundation awarded Chapman with $5 million towards the then-new 1,100 seat Center for the Arts. In 2012, the foundation was also the principle fundraiser for Chapman’s Richard Watson Asian Studies Distinguished Speaker Series.
Elim Kay, President and Board Member of Kay Family Foundation said, “We envision the Kay Data Analytics Fund as a means to strategically supplement critical existing research and talent across many different disciplines at Chapman… This is an opportunity to identify niche areas around which clusters of excellence can be built to have real world impact.”
The foundation has endowed programs in various fields in addition to business, such as the arts, medicine and social service. Founder/patriarch Steeve Kay was born in Southeast China and was raised in Myanmar. He received his MMSE from Stanford before earning an MBA from Pepperdine University in the 1980s.
Kay began his career as an engineer in Silicon Valley who worked on high tech semiconductors. He went on to craft software which is now used as the basis for America’s disability benefits market.
Argyros School dean Reggie Gilyard said of the foundation’s gift, “It will provide faculty, students and potentially alumni with resources that enable discovery and impact through the analysis of sizable data sets … This generous donation will drive innovation in the critical area of data analytics, which is causing enormous shifts in both the business world and society at large.”
About the Author
Maggie Boccella
Maggie Boccella, a lifelong resident of Philadelphia, is a freelance writer, artist and photographer. She has consulted on various film and multimedia projects, and she also serves as a juror for the city's annual LGBTQIA Film Festival.
