Longtime donors Thomas E. and Lynn B. Chandler make generous gift to enhance sales education at Elon

Through The Chandler Family Professional Sales Center, students will take sales courses, pursue independent research and participate in internships to prepare for careers in sales. The center, to be housed in the Ernest A. Koury, Sr. Business Center, will also serve the business community by sponsoring seminars and offering executive training opportunities.

Thomas Chandler is owner of Chandler Concrete Co., a family-owned and operated business for more than 35 years. The Burlington-based company operates in North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.

“Seeing people succeed in business, especially in the sales area, has been very important to me,” Chandler says. “We like to say in our company that nothing happens until a sale is made. More and more, people need good sales training today, and we feel that the sales center will give Elon business students that experience. We’ve been very impressed with the business school and seen it develop into one of the major programs at Elon, and we wanted to be part of that.”

Chandler has been an Elon trustee since 1999. He is a member of the board’s executive committee and serves as chair of the development committee and vice chair of the campaign leadership committee. He and his wife have been loyal donors to Elon and made a generous gift to support construction of Koury Business Center.

“The Chandler Family Professional Sales Center will enable us to strengthen the existing professional sales education for students, expand research opportunities for our faculty and students, and provide professional sales training as part of our executive education programs,” says Mary Gowan, Love School dean.

This gift will be counted as part of Elon’s upcoming fundraising campaign to build the endowment.