$4 Million Walton Gift Endows JBU Center for Ethics

Seventeen years after their first introduction, Sam Walton finally convinced Don Soderquist to join his company of retail stores. A couple of years later, in 1982, with Walton’s blessing, Soderquist joined the board at John Brown University in Siloam Springs.

On May 11, those connections paid off again for JBU, this time in the form of a $4 million donation from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation, a gift earmarked for The Donald G. Soderquist Center for Business Leadership and Ethics.

“We at John Brown University are absolutely delighted with this gift. We’re very, very excited,” says Lee Balzer, JBU president. “This gift frees the Center to actively get about its work … immediately.”

Soderquist, senior vice chairman of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., was obviously moved by the gift. “I am so thankful to the Walton family” for the donation. “I can assure you it means an awful lot to me.”

The creation of The Soderquist Center for Business Leadership and Ethics was announced last August, and, because of the success of its endowment campaign, will offer its first courses and seminars this fall.

Tom Muccio, vice president of business development for Procter & Gamble, and Delia Haak, associate director of the Soderquist Center, will teach the first course, Foundations of Leadership.

The Soderquist Center is unique, even among Christian-based schools such as JBU.

“We feel the Center will develop and motivate world-class leaders,” Balzer says. “We believe that there’s a special role for John Brown University in this work.”

It’s expected to attract executives from companies of all sizes from across the country and even from around the world. Additionally, undergraduate JBU students in all disciplines of study, from journalism to theology, will be encouraged to take courses offered by the Center.

Soderquist says several Fortune 500 company executives have already expressed interest in the Center, and some, like P&G’s Muccio, are being tapped as instructors and seminar leaders.

Also, JBU is willing to share its knowledge with other colleges and universities. Soderquist suggested the possibility of using a satellite network to broadcast speakers to other locations.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., of course, has perfected the use of a satellite network to facilitate communication among its stores.

That experience, Soderquist says, “gives you the idea” of how efficient such a network can be.

The Center will offer a master of science degree in leadership and ethics. Cost for the entire program, which includes several seminars, is $12,580, or about $2,300 per semester.

“There’s never been a greater time in our history for the need for ethical leadership in the United States and the world,” Soderquist says.

Record gift

The contribution was announced by Mark Simmons, CEO of Simmons Foods and a board member for the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation.

JBU, says Simmons, “is making an impact in the world.” The gift from the Walton Foundation “will accelerate the pace of the good works that will come out of the [Soderquist Center].”

The donation completes the center’s operations endowment of more than $8 million and brings the university’s comprehensive fund-raising campaign total to $30 million. The campaign’s initial goal was $32.5 million, but, because some portions of the drive have exceeded their goals, another $8 million is needed to complete the campaign.

Those plan for the Soderquist Center will next move to its second phase, in which money will be raised for a new building. In the meantime, the Center will use a former residence located on Holly Street in Siloam Springs as its base of operations.