USD Magazine Spring 2022

excited by them. I see so much enthusiasm, I see so much intel- ligence, I see so much thinking outside the box. They’re going to solve the problems of the world. I’m confident of that. We just have to make sure they have the opportunity and the tools to do it. And I think they can get a lot of that here. Dean Keane: As I mentioned when we started this interview, you have been so generous with your time and resources over the years. How would you sum up the legacy of that generosity? Don: A life is not important except for the impact it has on other lives. And that’s the way, I think, we’d like to be remem- bered. This has an impact.

Every student who wants those opportunities is going to have access because of this investment. Not if they can afford to do it, but now it can be made available to them, and I think that’s going to create a whole ripple effect. Dean Keane: Everything we do in the Knauss School of Business is focused on our students’ success. We deliver learning through the highest quality curriculum, reinforced and integrated with multiple experiences that help our students grow their business toolbox skills and their soft skills. This generation of students face tremendous stress, exacerbated by the pandemic. How will they thrive in the future?

Ellie: It’s a different way of doing things now. So much more is collaborative now, than it’s ever been before. Dean Keane: Your investment in the Knauss School of Business includes the construction of our new, state-of-the-art business school complex, and the Knauss Center for Business Education building. In your view, how is our vision enabled through the Knauss Center for Business Education? Don: That building’s going to be a world-class facility to enable that kind of interaction with people. How things are structured, the openness, the lightness, the ability to innovate with each other, that design was, I think, critical to creating that kind of atmosphere.

The Knauss Center for Business Education opens in Fall 2022. Each space within the 120,000-square- foot complex is intention- ally designed to create an innovation and collaboration ecosystem that empowers student experiences. From groundbreaking technology that enables active learning classrooms, data analytics labs, a pro- duction studio and student start-up incubator spaces, Knauss School of Business students will learn what it takes to remake the future of business.

Ellie: This generation, I’m so

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