Global Innovation Exchange update

"Enjoy your time at Laurier."

"Believe and you will achieve!"

"Success isn’t given, it’s earned."

"Dream Big!"

These statements are just some of the inspirational words donors are passing on to future Laurier students through the Building Canada’s Best Business School fundraising campaign. The messages will be inscribed on seats in the auditorium of Laurier’s new Global Innovation Exchange building.

For a donation of $2,500, people have the opportunity to name their seat in the GIE auditorium. Donations can be spread over five years and can support any area of the School of Business and Economics. More than 80 per cent of available seats have already been named. If you are interested in naming a seat, visit canadasbestbusinessschool.ca/give/nameyourseat.

Donors have put their own names on the seats or have chosen to name seats in honour or memory of loved ones.

The Name Your Seat initiative is part of Laurier’s $55-million campaign for the School of Business and Economics. The campaign priorities include student scholarships and bursaries, international initiatives, professorships and chairs, entrepreneurship, StartUp Fund, Centre for Excellence in Business Education and the GIE.

The GIE will be Laurier’s most advanced building when it’s complete in early 2016. Technology will offer seamless collaboration between classrooms, study spaces, labs and centres around the world. Over the winter, crews installed windows, skylights and mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. They have begun working on the building’s interior finishes. The building is scheduled to open in 2016.

As the magnificent building takes shape, fundraising proceeds. Thanks to generous alumni, corporations, staff and faculty, the university is more than 65% of the way to its goal. And momentum continues to build.

Laurier graduate Bill Webb (BBA ’86) kicked off 2015 by announcing in January that he and his wife Dr. Agnes Wong were donating $1 million to SBE. Other recent donations include $1 million from the Marsland family to support both the GIE and the Laurier Startup Fund, $100,000 from The Co-operators to fund the study of alternative governance models and $200,000 from National Bank of Canada in support of the LaunchPad entrepreneurship program.

Some alumni are finding creative ways to support SBE. For example, members and friends of the Class of ’66 have come together to reach a goal of $500,000 to name the GIE’s prominent outside terrace. Members of this first graduating class of the School of Business and Economics have raised $300,000 to date and plan to achieve their goal in the coming months. More information on specific class initiatives can be found at canadasbestbusinessschool.ca/give/class-giving.

There is still time for you to be part of this exciting campaign to transform the School of Business and Economics and help Laurier offer the best business education and experience in Canada. Recognition opportunities for yourself, your family or to honour a loved one exist at all levels — from naming a student study space or a special active learning classrooms to funding a bike rack or naming a seat in the auditorium. For more information, visit www.canadasbestbusinessschool.com.