Toyota Provides $1.2 Million for Management Chair at Rice

Contact: Michael Cinelli
Phone: (713) 527-4807

Toyota Provides $1.2 Million for Management Chair at Rice

A $1.2 million gift from the Friedkin
Foundation and Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., will fund the newly
created Friedkin Chair in Management at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate
School of Administration at Rice University.

The chair will support the university’s joint M.B.A./Master of
Engineering degree program, which is designed to prepare students to
work for organizations that recruit managers with high levels of
technical expertise and managerial skills.

"Rice gratefully accepts this gift from the Friedkin Foundation
and Toyota," said Benjamin F. Bailar, dean of the Jones Graduate
School. "It will go a long way toward enhancing the educational
experience of our students. The Friedkin Chair in Management will be
a valuable asset for the Jones School for years to come."

The chair is named in honor of Thomas H. Friedkin, chairman of
the board of Houston-based Gulf States Toyota, Inc. (GST). GST is an
independent distributor of Toyotas in a five-state region that
includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The
gift to Rice commemorates the 25th anniversary of GST and its
business partnership with Toyota.

Friedkin and Toyota officials expect the Rice program to become
a model in the United States for the training of engineering-oriented businesspeople required to compete in today’s globalized
manufacturing environment.

"Endowing a chair at this prestigious university underscores
Toyota’s commitment to education in America," said Yale Gieszl,
executive vice president of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. "It is
especially fitting that we be associated with a university that is
recognized worldwide as having one of the finest engineering and
technical degree programs in America."

Friedkin said the gift "not only recognizes the support of our
hometown throughout the 25-year growth of our company, but it
recognizes the special resources that Rice has to offer to Houston,
to Texas and to the entire country."

Rice president Malcolm Gillis said the gift from the foundation
and Toyota is an example of how the business and educational
communities can work together to improve the educational experience
for graduate students.

"For our graduate students to be able to compete for the highly
skilled and highly specialized jobs of tomorrow’s marketplace, we
need and welcome this type of support from the business community,"
he added. "We are grateful that Tom Friedkin and Toyota U.S.A.
selected Rice to receive this gift."

Rice University is an independent, coeducational, nonsectarian
private university dedicated to undergraduate teaching and graduate
studies, research, and professional training in selected
disciplines. It has an undergraduate student population of 2,674, a
graduate and professional student population of 1,449 and a full-
time faculty of 437.

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