John and Patricia Chadwick, of Old Greenwich, Connecticut, and Bill and Frances Creekmuir of Atlanta have made generous gifts to support Richard W. Sankey Hall and Business Fellows scholarships.
John and Patricia Chadwick, of Old Greenwich, Connecticut., and Bill and Frances Creekmuir of Atlanta have made generous gifts to support Richard W. Sankey Hall and Business Fellows scholarships.
The gift from John and Patricia Chadwick will endow the Chadwick Family Business Fellows Scholarship to help attract top students to the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business and support Richard W. Sankey Hall, the new three-story, 30,000-square-foot facility that will provide expanded space for Elon’s growing business school.
The Chadwicks have been dedicated supporters of student scholarships and the Love School, where their son, Jim ’16, earned his degree in economics.
“From the first moment our son was accepted to Elon until the day he graduated, we felt such a kinship with the university,” said Patricia Chadwick, founder and president of Ravengate Partners and a member of the Love School Board of Advisors. “Elon is going in so many right directions and inspires students both to enjoy their university life and to reach their full potential.”
Chadwick said her family is excited to support two key university priorities: deepening scholarship funding for students in the Business Fellows program and supporting the expansion of the Love School of Business, which has outgrown the Ernest A. Koury, Sr. Business Center.
“Within our own country, we have a broad array of cultures and means, and even though Elon provides great value for the tuition dollar, there are still students who need help,” Chadwick said. “It has been phenomenal to watch how dramatically the Love School of Business has grown, and Sankey Hall is essential to that continued progress.”
Currently under design, Sankey Hall will be located on the north end of the McMichael Science Center parking lot adjacent to Colonnades Dining Hall. In addition to technology infused classrooms and student-faculty engagement spaces, Sankey Hall will house two new academic centers focusing on financial education and Design Thinking.
To date, parents, alumni and friends have contributed $7.5 million in commitments toward the $8 million fundraising goal for Sankey Hall.
Chadwick said she hopes her family’s gift will help drive the Love School of Business to even higher levels of national recognition and enable talented students with financial need to enroll at Elon as Business Fellows. The Love School is currently ranked in the top 40 of the nation’s undergraduate business schools.
“Elon is one of the hottest schools that students apply to and that doesn’t happen without great leadership and great professors and a commitment to excellence,” Chadwick said.
Also supporting Sankey Hall with a generous gift are Bill and Frances Creekmuir, parents of Elizabeth Hardin ’09 and Lauren Kail ’10. The Creekmuirs have been devoted donors to the Love School, as well as scholarships and Elon athletics. The couple also previously endowed the Creekmuir Family Scholarship for Business Fellows.
“Elon is a special place where Frances and I feel like we can make a difference,” said Bill Creekmuir, president and owner of Pinnacle Search Partners, an international executive search firm headquartered in Atlanta, and chair of the Love School Board of Advisors. “We’ve had two daughters and a son-in-law graduate from Elon, and last year I hired a 2016 Elon Love School of Business graduate who has been a great addition to my Pinnacle Search team.”
Creekmuir grew up in Greensboro, N.C., and has enjoyed watching Elon grow into a national university.
“It’s been rewarding being part of a university that is continuing to transform and reinvent itself,” he said. “Not too many years ago, the LSB board dreamed about being a top-50 undergraduate business school, and now we are. I love Elon’s focus on internships and international education in the Love School. I know how much I benefited from my own international work experience, and I have seen my children and other students benefit from international education as well.”