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Donation is Largest Single Gift to a Maryland Community College,
Will Establish Distinctive Business Honors Program

ROCKVILLE, MD---Gordon and Marilyn Macklin today announced a $1.26 million gift to Montgomery College to establish the Gordon and Marilyn Macklin Business Institute. The donation, announced publicly at the College’s Performing Arts Center, Rockville Campus, is the largest single charitable gift to a Maryland community college.

The Macklin Institute, which begins in fall 1999, will offer a wide range of business honors courses and experiential training to provide County students with outstanding business education and baccalaureate transfer opportunities. The Macklin Institute is also designed to promote economic development by providing highly skilled MC graduates in business, technology, and management fields. Macklin, a Bethesda resident, is currently a corporate financial advisor. He served as president of the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc., which owned the NASDAQ stock exchange, from 1970-1987; chairman of Hambrecht & Quist, Inc., a San Francisco-based investment banking and venture capital firm, from 1987-1992; and chairman of White River Corporation, a financial investment firm, from 1993-1998. Macklin is either on the board of directors, trustees, or is a managing general partner of 49 investment companies in the Franklin/Templeton Group. In addition, he serves as a member of the Board of Directors of MCI WorldCom, Inc., MedImmune, Inc., Fund America, Space Hab, Inc., Martek Biosciences, Inc., Real 3D, Museum of American Financial History, and the Investment Company Institute (Board of Governors).

"Montgomery College does improve the quality of the workforce here, and has the opportunity to do more. It attracts industry, jobs, and greater prosperity. As citizens, we have an opportunity to help our community grow and prosper," says Macklin. "The generous gift of $1,260,000, one of the largest endowments to a community college in Maryland, from local business leader Gordon S. Macklin will enable Montgomery College to propel its business program to a position of national eminence," says Dr. Charlene R. Nunley, MC President. "Because of Mr. Macklin's philanthropic support, the College will offer students unprecedented educational opportunities that include internships with major corporations, mentoring relationships with local business leaders, and the ability to transfer to the top business schools in the nation." The gift is designed to attract students to Montgomery College with scholarships that keep top talent in the area; to help community students who might not otherwise consider a career in business; and, finally, to encourage other potential donors to consider giving opportunities at the College, says Macklin.

The Macklin Institute initially will attract students right out of high school, aim them upward, and create superior citizens, who, if left unattended, might be just the opposite, he says.  According to Macklin, the gift is the result of the recent success of MedImmune, Inc., a research firm headquartered in Gaithersburg, where he is a stockholder and member of the board of directors. "Montgomery County is an affluent county that values education, business and technology, and civic responsibility. We need to find creative ways that bring those values together."

The Macklin Institute will offer an honors program for second-year students, beginning this fall. Each student will have a scholarship, a summer internship, a faculty and corporate mentor, and a laptop computer.

The Institute will build on an already solid foundation in place at the three campuses in Takoma Park, Germantown, and Rockville, and in Continuing Education. It will meet the needs of recent high school graduates preparing for transfer and entry into the workforce, returning students seeking new skills, and businesses seeking to improve the competencies of their workforce. "The focused programs in the Institute are designed to provide students with the skills, values, and experiences that are essential in the rapidly changing, high-technology world of business today," says Jeffrey Schwartz, interim director of the Institute and MC professor of business and economics. The Institute will be one of just a few selective programs that admit students with high academic credentials to an otherwise open college, he says. The Institute will recruit prominent business leaders to serve as lecturers, advisors, and mentors. According to Schwartz, the Institute will be phased in three stages. Phase 1 will implement a special program for outstanding second-year business students. It will be very selective and small scale, bringing together highly talented students in a strong, close-knit community of scholars. The cornerstones of this stage are high-quality seminar-style coursework with the College’s best faculty, scholarships, internships, and lectures. Information technology will be integrated throughout the program with an emphasis on developing transfer options at four-year schools that have strong business programs.

Phase 2 activities include expanding the number of students in the second-year experience, expanding faculty development initiatives, and strengthening networks to the business community. The combination of solid theoretical and practical experiences will give faculty the perspective to develop and accommodate academic programs to provide students and employers with learning situations directly relevant to employer needs and the needs of working adults.

Phase 3 will provide high-quality, state-of-the-art continuing education for those already employed in the field of business or for those who suddenly find themselves assuming managerial or supervisory roles or taking on progressively increasing responsibility. The focus will be on strengthening the skills critical to success in the business world: group dynamics, team leadership, legal issues, ethical values, international business issues, managing diversity, facilitating organizational change, applications of technology, and recognizing the influence of special interest and power groups and how these constrain business behavior.

"Mr. Macklin has already had a transforming effect on the College through his financial support and his interest in supporting the County," says Sandra Harriman, MC Director of Development. "His motivation has been the knowledge that his gift of appreciated securities from MedImmune will be used to benefit Montgomery College, which is educating the County’s current and future workforce, thereby creating additional wealth."

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