A Letter from the Dean

Dear Alumni and Friends,

As we embark upon defining the future of learning, we hold great pride in the growing Business Badger community that is partnering with us to transform business education and strengthen our impact on the world. With your investments, we have made great headway in redefining business education. I am particularly proud of the way our community came together in 2015 for the public launch of our university’s most ambitious fundraising campaign—All Ways Forward. The campaign is organized around four pillars: providing student support, improving the educational experience, maintaining faculty excellence, and supporting research and innovation. All four are critical to our success.

The All Ways Forward campaign started quietly on July 1, 2013. Since then, 9,164 alumni and friends have made gifts to our School, totaling more than $110 million in contributions by the end of 2015. An effort this momentous requires partnership and commitment from our Business Badger community. We would not have accomplished such a fast start without the dedication of our Campaign Steering Committee, led by John Oros and Cindy Ihlenfeld, and the many volunteers helping us connect with Business Badgers around the world.

In the quiet phase of the campaign, many of you were inspired to participate in the matching gift offered by alumni John and Tashia Morgridge, contributing a grand total of $35 million in support of faculty excellence for the School. Those gifts are already providing critical resources for us to attract and retain the very best faculty who are enthusiastic about defining the future of learning at the Wisconsin School of Business.

We are also grateful that so many of you contributed to our WSB Fund and Innovation Fund in 2015. Such discretionary gifts in support of our strategy allow us to invest in high-priority areas and keep our aspiration to transform business education in sight—and the world is taking notice. Prestigious educational and business organizations have taken notice of our progress and are now partnering with us at the cutting edge of educational innovation.

We are most grateful for the tremendous generosity of our alumni and friends. Gifts of every amount make a difference in everything we do. Together, we will attract, challenge, and inspire Business Badgers who will lead our companies, industries, and communities today and in the future.

Together Forward.

—François Ortalo-Magné
Albert O. Nicholas Dean of the Wisconsin School of Business