Daniels Establishes Taylor Family Undergraduate Career Center

Andy and Barbara Taylor provide funding for innovative career center focused on undergraduate business students

DENVER, Sept. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The University of Denver's Daniels College of Business today announced the establishment of the Taylor Family Undergraduate Career Services Center made possible with a new gift of $5 million from Andy and Barbara Taylor. The Center will focus on providing an innovative and in-depth portfolio of services to help undergraduate students explore business majors and career paths, prepare for internships and interviews, advance their own professional development and build their own successful business networks. Of the Taylor gift, $2.5 million is earmarked to establish scholarships for internships with non-profit and government organizations. This scholarship fund was matched by the University of Denver for a total of $5 million.

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"This is a spectacular gift from Andy and Barbara Taylor," said Daniels Dean Christine Riordan.  "Andy and Barbara understand that engaged student learning – with real world experience from internships, professional networking, and personalized attention – prepares them to be ethical business leaders.  This gift will help the Daniels College provide resources to our students for lifelong career development and to create powerful connections for our students to a large community of peers, alumni, faculty, staff, and companies."

Andy Taylor, the chairman and CEO of Enterprise Holdings, parent company of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car brands, and his wife, Barbara, are both alumni of the University and are long-time supporters of the College.  In 2011 they gave the University a gift of $5 million in support of Taylor Scholarships to foster diversity among undergraduate students attending the Daniels College of Business. That gift followed a previous donation of $1 million that established the Taylor Scholarship endowment. The University of Denver matched the Taylors' 2011 gift of $5 million, bringing the total Taylor Scholarship fund to $11 million. In addition, Enterprise Holdings has provided internship opportunities for Daniels students, supported service projects, and Andy Taylor presented at the Daniels College of Business 2010-2011 Voices of Experience season, a signature speaker series that features C-level executives and business leaders.

Founded in 1957, Enterprise Holdings is the most comprehensive service provider in the car rental industry. Its worldwide network of Enterprise, National and Alamo branches includes almost 7,800 neighborhood and airport locations, with 6,000 offices located within 15 miles of 90 percent of the U.S. population. Enterprise Holdings is owned by the Taylor family and is the only investment-grade company in the U.S. car rental industry.

Founded in 1908, The Daniels College of Business is the top-ranked business college at the University of Denver, one of the country's premier private universities. Daniels is globally recognized as a leader in providing an immersive and engaged business education. Grounded in ethics, our educational experience not only teaches students, it transforms lives. As a learning community, our students, faculty and staff nurture service, outreach and personal integrity as we proactively tackle the tough business issues of our day.

In April, 2012, the Daniels College of Business team placed first out of nearly 1,000 students at 25 leading business schools worldwide in the Aspen Institute's 2012 Business & Society International MBA Case Competition, which challenged competitors to tackle a new case study and recognizes students who innovate at the intersection of corporate profitability and environmental, social and ethical issues.   In March, 2012, Bloomberg Businessweek placed the Daniels undergraduate program at No. 57 in the U.S. In November, 2011, Global CEO Magazine ranked Daniels as the top business school in the Western U.S. and  Bloomberg Businessweek ranked the Daniels College of Business Professional MBA program No. 25 in the U.S. as well as No. 5 in the Southwest Region.

SOURCE University of Denver