Tanoto Foundation Endowment Enables Renaming of Northwestern University’s Kellogg Center for Family Enterprises to ‘John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises’

Endowment Continues Tanoto Foundation’s Commitment to the Study Of Family Enterprise at Leading Universities

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES – Media
OutReach – 28 May
2021 – The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University held a
ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the renaming of the Kellogg Center for
Family Enterprises to the John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises, which was
made possible through an endowment from Tanoto Foundation.  Professor John Ward, Clinical Professor
Emeritus of Family Enterprise, previously served as co-director of the center. 

Ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the renaming of the Kellogg Center for Family Enterprises to the John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises, which was made possible through an endowment from Tanoto Foundation. Pictured from left:  Anderson Tanoto, Board of Trustees, Tanoto Foundation; Professor John L. Ward, Clinical Professor Emeritus of Family Enterprise; Professor Morton Schapiro, President Northwestern University; Sukanto Tanoto and Tinah Bingei Tanoto, co-founders of Tanoto Foundation; and Professor Francesca Cornelli, Dean Kellogg School of Management.

“The
vast majority of businesses around the world are family businesses, and they
drive significant innovation and growth in our global economy,” said Francesca
Cornelli, Dean of Kellogg. “With the generous support of the Tanoto Foundation
and the Tanoto family, the Kellogg School of Management will continue to expand
on the Ward Center’s innovative, world-class work, building on the
extraordinary foundation laid by Professor Ward.”

Pictured above, from left:  Professor John L. Ward, Clinical Professor Emeritus of Family Enterprise; and Sukanto Tanoto, co-founder of Tanoto Foundation.

Mr.
Ward has been a guiding force in developing the renowned teaching and research
center, which provides cutting-edge thinking and guidance for family business
strategies, governance, succession, entrepreneurship, foundations and business
culture. A practical theorist, he has conducted extensive research, working
with families worldwide and bringing that knowledge back to the classroom. Ward
also is an accomplished writer, having co-authored many books and case studies on
family business. He previously served on the Tanoto Foundation’s Board of
Advisors.

Pictured from left: Professor Morton Schapiro, President Northwestern University; Sukanto Tanoto and Tinah Bingei Tanoto, co-founders of Tanoto Foundation; Professor John L. Ward, Clinical Professor Emeritus of Family Enterprise; Professor Francesca Cornelli, Dean Kellogg School of Management; and Anderson Tanoto, Board of Trustees, Tanoto Foundation.

During
the ceremony, Mr. Sukanto Tanoto, who co-founded Tanoto Foundation with his
wife Tinah Bingei Tanoto in 1981, said: “Family businesses have a special
opportunity to make a difference in the world.  A typical public company is run quarter on
quarter and executives are incentivized based on ‘short-termism’. Family businesses
should and must think long-term and embody the spirit of stakeholder
capitalism.”

“The
main purpose of our gift today to Kellogg is to capture and sustain the essence
of what makes Professor John Ward a preeminent scholar in family enterprise, and
to pass this spirit and wisdom to future generations.”

Tanoto
Foundation’s recent endowment to the Kellogg School of Management at
Northwestern University continues its ongoing contributions to the study of
family business governance and succession at large globally. Through gifts made
in 2012 and 2017, Tanoto Foundation also established the Tanoto Center for Asian Family Business and Entrepreneurship
Studies
at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). The center aims
to bridge the knowledge gap between academics and practitioners as well as
policymakers through its programs and activities, while spurring knowledge
creation in Asian family businesses and entrepreneurship.

According
to research conducted by HKUST, the role of family business globally is
significant. Over 57% of the U.S. GDP comes from family owned businesses and an
even higher rate in China at 60%. In Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous
nation and 16^th largest economy, more than 50% of local businesses
are family owned.

In
his address at Northwestern University, Mr. Sukanto added:  “Professor John Ward’s prolific work with
family businesses has been pivotal for companies, leaders and researchers
around the world.  His evidence-based
work has created groundbreaking insights into the science and dynamics of
thriving family businesses and philanthropies. 
In this constantly changing world, we need John’s work to continue.  I’m confident that we’ll continue to build upon
his teachings through the John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises.”

The
mission of the Ward Center is to be the thought leader in family enterprise
education. Established in 1999, the center has pioneered much of what is known
about the collective challenges business-owning families face and led new ways
of thinking about the management and leadership of family enterprises.

The endowment
will help the center expand its educational offerings to:

• Share research insights with leading family
  enterprises around the world
• Conduct groundbreaking research on the challenges
  facing enterprising families globally
• Engage scholars and family enterprises to
  inform the discipline more fully and to enhance the scholarship and
  capabilities of the field
• Augment the family enterprise case and history
  library — with an emphasis on older, larger, global families that have achieved
  generational continuity