“Allen Questrom is a retailing industry icon, having transformed many companies during his career while demonstrating the highest integrity, exceptional leadership, and tireless service in support of others,” added Freeman in a statement. “With the Questroms’ generous support, we will be able to accelerate our transformation and better prepare the next generation of bold leaders to make a positive difference in the world.”
GIFT PART OF THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN BY BOSTON UNIVERSITY
The Questroms’ gift comes two and one-half years after BU announced its first-ever comprehensive fundraising campaign with a target of $1 billion. The university said that today’s $50 million pledge brings the campaign total to $823 million with the university on track to meet its overall goal well before its scheduled completion date in 2017.
Questrom spent most of his career in retailing with Federated, rising from trainee in 1964 to become corporate executive vice president in 1987. After leaving Federated in 1988 following its hostile takeover by a Canadian real estate mogul to steer the turnaround of Neiman Marcus, he returned to the bankrupt Federated in 1990 as chairman and CEO. He brought the company out of Chapter 11 in 1993, and in 1995 engineered the acquisition of rivals Broadway Department Stores and the R. H. Macy Company, Inc.
He retired from the restored Federated in 1997, and returned to retailing a year later as chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Barneys New York, Inc., bringing the fashion emporium out of bankruptcy in 1999, and creating a new COOP division of Barneys. From September 2000 to 2005 as the first ‘outsider’ to lead the company in its nearly 100-year history, he served as chairman and chief executive officer of the JCPenney Co., leading a successful turnaround of the corporation’s department store, catalog, and internet businesses.
Questrom has served since 2006 as a Senior Advisor of Lee Equity Partners. He is a Director of the Glazer Family of Companies and is on the Board of the Men’s Wearhouse, Inc., the At Home retail chain, and the Board of Advisors of The Robin Report, which provides insight into consumer product industries. He is a former Director of Foot Locker, Inc., Sotheby’s Holdings, Inc., and of Walmart. Questrom is a Trustee of Boston Univesrity, his alma mater, where the Allen & Kelli Questrom Foundation endowed in 2007 the chairs of the Dean of the Boston University School of Management and two professorships, and a former Trustee of the Aspen Music Festival & School, where the Questroms underwrite student scholarships.
Retiring from her fashion promotion career in 1986 to civic life following a bleearly diagnosis of breast cancer, Kelli Questrom became an advocate for preventative medicine, speaking by invitation on Capitol Hill. In the mid-80’s, she co-founded the Greater Los Angeles Partnership for the Homeless, resulting in the establishment of L.A.’s Downtown Women’s Center, and served in the ’90’s on the first national Board of Directors of Design Industries Foundation Fighting Aids (DIFFA).
Currently Kelli has served as a Trustee for seven years of the Aspen Art Museum, and for 12 years of the Dallas Museum of Art where the Allen & Kelli Questrom Foundation has endowed the two Museums’ educational programming, as well as the free docented tours program for public and charter school students at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, of which Questrom in the ’90’s was a Trustee, and the Questroms currently are members of the National Council. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, a nationally recognized dance company that performs, produces, and teaches classical ballet, Folkloric and African dance forms.
Largest Gifts To Business Schools
School | Amount | Donor | Year |
---|---|---|---|
Chicago’s Booth School of Business | $300 million | David Booth | 1997 |
Michigan’s Ross School of Business | $200 million | Stephen Ross | 2004, 2013 |
Stanford Graduate School of Business | $150 million | Robert & Dorothy King | 2011 |
Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business | $122 million | David Tepper | 2004, 2013 |
Stanford Graduate School of Business | $105 million | Philip Knight | 2006 |
Columbia Business School | $100 million | Ronald Perelman | 2013 |
Columbia Business School | $100 million | Henry Kravis | 2010 |
Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School | $80 million | David Atkinson | 2010 |
Florida’s Warrington College of Business | $75 million | Al & Judy Warrington | 2014 |
Hawaii’s Shidler College of Business | $69 million | Jay Shidler | 2014 |
Virginia’s Darden School of Business | $62 million | Frank Batten | 1999 |
Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim School | $60 million | Richard D’Amore & Alan McKim | 2012 |
Thunderbird School of Management | $60 million | Sam & Rita Garvin | 2004 |
Boston University’s Questrom School | $50 million | Allen & Kelli Questrom | 2015 |
Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business | $50 million | Jim Haslam & family | 2014 |
Georgia Tech’s Scheller College | $50 million | Ernest Scheller | 2012 |
Harvard Business School | $50 million | Tata Group | 2010 |
Yale School of Management | $50 million | Ned Evans | 2010 |
Arizona State’s Carey School of Business | $50 million | William Carey | 2003 |
Texas’ McCombs School of Business | $50 million | Red McCombs | 2000 |
Arkansas’ Walton College of Business | $50 million | The Walton Family | 1998 |
Source: AACSB list