Robert Rubin to keynote Whitman School dedication April 8

Robert Rubin to keynote Whitman School dedication April 8March 29, 2005Sara Millersemortim@syr.edu

Robert E. Rubin, former Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton administration and current chairman of the executive committee of Citigroup, Inc., will help usher in a new era of business education at Syracuse University by delivering the keynote address at the dedication of the Martin J. Whitman School of Management’s new building.

Rubin will speak April 8 at 10:15 a.m., in Hendricks Chapel. The public is invited to attend Rubin’s address, with paid parking available at the Comstock and Waverly Avenue visitor lots.

“We’re terrifically honored that Bob Rubin will mark this historic day with us,” says Melvin T. Stith G’73, ’78, dean of the Whitman School. “We’re using the occasion of the dedication of our new building to celebrate the Whitman spirit, that special brand of entrepreneurial leadership that characterizes all Syracuse management graduates, and Mr. Rubin’s career epitomizes that spirit. Throughout his career he’s exhibited brilliant intellectual leadership guided by high principle and a commitment to serve his community and his country.”

The official dedication and ribbon cutting will immediately follow Rubin’s address, and will begin at 11:30 a.m. at the University Avenue entrance of the new Whitman School building. Speaking at the dedication will be: Stith; SU Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor; Board of Trustees Chair John Couri ’63; Whitman School Corporate Advisory Council Chair Bernard Kossar ’53 LAW’55; and student representative Chad Bender ’05. A reception will follow on the fourth floor of the Whitman School building. The public is invited to attend, with parking available in the University Avenue garage.”The Whitman School is a powerful blend of academic prowess and professional accomplishment,” says Cantor. “Its graduates are known for pushing the bounds of business achievement and I am truly excited that the School now has a home reflective of its incredible enterprising energies.”

The Whitman School’s new 160,000-square-foot building was designed from the ground up to be a student-focused, high-tech facility that supports the learning experiences essential to a world-class management education-all within an environment that promotes a culture of community. Some of the signature spaces include the three-story, 4,000-square-foot Flaum Grand Hall; the 200-seat Lender Auditorium; 40 meeting rooms for student teams; an in-house Executive Education Center; the Ballentine Investment Lab, with sophisticated simulation and financial research capabilities; the Couri Hatchery for supporting entrepreneurial start-ups; the 100-seat Olsten Cafe; and, for special functions, the Milton Room and outdoor terrace.

The Whitman dedication celebration will run from April 4-8, and will also include:

• April 4 and 6: The Center for Ethics and Leadership Annual lectures, with presentations by Barbara H. Kipp, Global Ethics Leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers; and Patrick Kuhse, business ethics speaker and consultant.
• April 7: The second annual Whitman Day, commemorating the naming of the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, featuring a lecture by Paul S. Speranza Jr. ’69, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary, Wegmans Food Markets Inc.
• April 8: In addition to Rubin’s address and the dedication, the day will feature public panels in the afternoon, including a blue-ribbon investing panel led by Whitman and Robert B. Menschel ’51, senior director of the Goldman Sachs Group; and a panel titled “Business Education: Quest for Its Soul in a Global Economy,” with Chancellor Emeritus Kenneth A. Shaw and Robert J. Swieringa, dean of Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management. The school’s annual dinner will be held in the evening.

For more information about the week’s events, visit http://whitman.syr.edu/dedication .

Rubin, member of the Office of the Chairman of Citigroup, has been involved in the strategic, managerial and operational matters of the company since joining the organization in 1999. Throughout his professional career, Rubin has been a leading figure in the financial markets and U.S. public policy debate. Beginning his career in finance at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York City in 1966, Rubin advanced to vice chair and co-chief operating officer from 1987-90, and served as co-senior partner and co-chair from 1990-92. Before joining Goldman, he was an attorney at the firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York City.

Rubin, long active in national and New York City public affairs, left the private sector in 1993 to join the administration of President William J. Clinton. Beginning with Clinton’s inauguration, Rubin served the White House as assistant to the president for economic policy. Directing the activities of the National Economic Council, Rubin guided the newly created NEC as it oversaw the administration’s domestic and international economic policymaking process, coordinated economic policy recommendations to the president and monitored implementation of the president’s economic policy goals.

Upon the retirement of Rubin’s predecessor, Lloyd Bentsen, Rubin was President Clinton’s choice to serve as 70th Secretary of the Treasury. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn into office in 1995.

As Secretary of the Treasury, Rubin played a leading role in many of the nation’s most important policy debates. He was involved in balancing the federal budget; opening trade policy to further globalization; acting to stem financial crises in Mexico, Asia and Russia; helping to resolve the impasse between Congress and the executive branch over the public debt limit; safeguarding the nation’s currency against counterfeiting; introducing inflation-indexed securities; strongly responding to issues at Treasury’s law enforcement agencies; and guiding sensible reforms at the Internal Revenue Service. He left Treasury in 1999.

Rubin now serves as chair of the board of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the nation’s leading community development support organization. He also serves on the board of directors of the Ford Motor Co. and on the board of trustees of Mount Sinai-NYU Health.

Rubin graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 1960 with an A.B. in economics. He received a L.L.B. from Yale Law School in 1964 and attended the London School of Economics.

The Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, established in 1919, is one of the oldest business schools in the nation and was one of the first to be accredited. The beneficiary of a naming gift from Whitman, legendary Wall Street financier, and his wife, Lois, in 2003, the school prepares graduates who combine an entrepreneurial mind-set and keen intellect with integrity and commitment to service. It boasts the oldest supply chain management program in the country, established in 1919; one of the first and largest distance learning MBA programs (the iMBA); and was one of the first business schools to integrate global business into its curricula.

The Whitman School’s Program in Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises is ranked by “Entrepreneur Magazine” as one of the top 13 programs in the county. The Whitman School has recently gained additional recognition as a top center for entrepreneurship education, with revolutionary programs that develop the entrepreneurial potential of students from all majors.