Investing in the Future
A corporate pillar’s multimillion-dollar gift to the College of Business Administration will help prepare tomorrow’s leaders

R. Kirk Landon made history earlier this year when he agreed to contribute the largest cash gift ever bestowed on FIU by an individual: $5 million to the College of Business Administration. As impressive as that figure sounds, the news gets even sweeter when another $5 million in qualifying state matching funds are added to the pot.

Young people aspiring to the highest ranks of corporate leadership can take R. Kirk Landon as a positive example. As the chairman and CEO of American Bankers Insurance Group, from which he retired in 1999 after 47 years, Landon understood that the true value of the company had as much to do with the loyalty and motivation of its employees as with hard financial figures. To that end, he was among the first in the nation to institute work-site childcare and helped develop a public elementary school on the property of the company headquarters in south Miami-Dade County , all in the name of reducing worker stress and drive time. That forward-thinking, peopleoriented strategy set the stage for American Bankers' phenomenal growth from a small, family-owned business begun by Landon's father into a multibillion-dollar corporation and the largest insurance firm in Florida.

No longer involved with the day-to-day routine of running a major company, the civic-minded Landon, 75, keeps busy by directing the two private charitable foundations he started several years ago. Having publicly stated that philanthropy will be his last career, he has for years actively contributed to myriad important causes. Locally, he has supported nursing education by providing funds to establish a clinical laboratory. He has contributed to the building of the Landon Family Garden on the grounds of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, and has furthered the quality of life for Miami-Dade residents by donating to Community Partnership for Homeless, the Miami Children's Museum and several arts organizations. He is likewise known outside of Florida for his generosity.

Then in May, Landon-whose association with FIU goes back to its earliest days, when he served on the 1972 advisory board and the University's Founders Council-agreed to make a $5 million gift to the College of Business Administration and create the R. Kirk Landon Undergraduate School of Business. The gift represents the largest single donation from an individual in FIU's 32-year history and qualifies for State of Florida Matching Funds, the addition of which will double the value of Landon's contribution. "Since FIU is producing the business leaders of tomorrow, it made sense to give to FIU," says Landon matter-offactly, adding that in his day American Bankers employed "a ton" of graduates from FIU. As with his support of the arts and other activities, he explains further, "I'm trying to make South Florida more world class."

Advancing the Momentum

The gift represents an important boost for the College of Business Administration, a rapidly rising institution with an increasingly international presence. With a current enrollment of about 6,000 undergraduates and more than 800 master's students, the college turns out more graduates than any other local business school and continues to earn wide recognition.

U.S. News & World Report in April rated the college among the Top 25 graduate business schools in the United States for excellence in international business, the only Florida school on the list. The same publication last year ranked the college's undergraduate international business program 14th in the nation. Business Week in late 2002 ranked the college among the best in the U.S. , placing it in a group with American, Fordham, George Washington, South Carolina, Syracuse, Rutgers and Tulane. For three years running, America Economia , a premier pan-regional business journal, rated it among the top 50 international MBA schools in the world for Latin American students.And Hispanic Business in March ranked the CBA among the top 25 business schools for Hispanics.

FIU President Modesto A. Maidique, a professor of anagement at the college, considers the contribution both kind and savvy.

"A member of our family has come forth to help us solidify our position as an internationally competitive business school," Maidique says. "We are grateful for his generosity and his vision."

As its record of achievement attests, the college has set its sights high, and Landon's support will ensure its continued growth and influence.

"His gift will just make an incredible difference," Executive Dean Joyce Elam says. "He's investing in the future of South Florida and investing in the potential of our students."

Carlos Migoya, '74 '76, the regional president overseeing Miami- Dade and Monroe counties for Wachovia Bank, who is also an alumnus of the college and the incoming chairman of the FIU Foundation, similarly views the donation as significant to the local area, which draws upon the college's graduates and resources.

"The business school is extremely important to the South Florida community and its people," he says. "[This] is a gift to South Florida . Having a quality business school at FIU, like we do today, is extremely important."

One of the original academic units established by the University at the time of its opening in 1972, the college has long maintained a strong network of corporate benefactors and individual supporters who recognize the critical need to promote quality business instruction. Previous major gifts have made possible the establishment of 10 eminent scholars chairs-more than in any other college or school within FIU and a critical component in attracting some of the most-renowned, research-oriented faculty; the founding of six research centers, among them the Ryder Center for Supply Chain Systems and the Knight-Ridder Center for Excellence in Management; and the creation of undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships totaling more than $2 million. Other contributions have funded research by faculty, an annual business-plan competition for students and appearances by noted guest speakers.

Landon's contribution will strengthen the college's existing activities even as it supports the administration's ongoing work with alumni and the business community to remain in the forefront of business education.

"Our vision is to prepare leaders and entrepreneurs for South Florida , the Americas and beyond," Elam says. "We will continue to develop new programs that serve that end. We see ourselves as the business school of South Florida ."

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