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WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES
CREATION OF RUSS BERRIE INSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL SELLING AT WILLIAM
PATERSON
• Russ Berrie to invest up to $5 million over five years to
establish first program of its kind
in the Northeast
• Unique partnership to advance field of professional sales
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Wayne,
New Jersey, December 5, 2002 – William Paterson University
in Wayne, New Jersey announced today the establishment of the Russ
Berrie Institute for Professional Selling at the University. Russ
Berrie, the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Russ
Berrie and Company, Inc. will invest up to $5 million over five
years to establish the Institute, which is the first program of
its kind in the Northeast.
The Institute represents a unique partnership between the private
sector and higher education designed to advance the field of professional
selling. To be housed in the University’s Christos M. Cotsakos
College of Business and located in William Paterson’s new
state-of-the-art academic building at 1600 Valley Road in Wayne,
the Institute will develop both professional and academic programs
for undergraduate students and sales professionals. Jim Brown, a
prominent sales executive, will serve as the Institute’s first
executive director.
"Sales is the driving force behind every
successful company. You could have the best product, the best management,
the best IT group or the best lawyers, but none of them will be
the machine that catapults the company to unusual success unless
you have that sales team out there knowing how to make the sale.
"Unfortunately, business schools in most universities regard
sales as meaningless in that they usually have but one course on
selling – sales management - while they might have 18 courses
on finance or management. My dream is to change that," states
Russ Berrie, chairman of Russ Berrie and
Company, Inc., an international gift company listed on the New York
Stock
Exchange.
"The Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Selling at WilliamPaterson
University will be the realization of this dream and create the
most successful selling program in the nation. With that goal in
mind, we are designing this program to advance and elevate the profession
of sales. Our program will lead to the day when a mother will proudly
acclaim ‘my son or daughter the salesperson’ rather
than ‘the doctor or lawyer,’" he says.
"William Paterson University is extremely honored to partner
with Russ Berrie, one of the United States’ most successful
businessmen and dedicated philanthropists," says Arnold Speert,
president. "We continually seek to provide unique and creative
opportunities for learning, and we believe the Russ Berrie Institute
will offer both undergraduate students and working professionals
a pre-eminent and unrivaled educational resource."
Plans for the Institute include:
*A concentration in professional sales as part of the University’s
current bachelor of science degree in business administration. This
program will evolve into a bachelor of science degree in professional
sales.
*A certificate program in professional selling to be offered to
working professionals, degree-holding graduates, and University
students majoring in other disciplines who wish to learn sales skills.
*Extensive continuing/executive education opportunities such as
workshops and seminars in sales and sales management.
"The establishment of the Russ Berrie Institute for Professional
Selling is consistent with our hands-on, action-oriented approach
to preparing students for the complex realities of today’s
business world," says Jess Boronico, dean of the University’s
Christos M. Cotsakos College of Business. "Real-world experiences,
especially those developed in partnership with leaders from the
business community, are crucial for our students, who represent
the workforce of the future."
In 1963, while working as a manufacturer’s representative,
Russ Berrie founded Russ Berrie and Company, Inc., and over the
last 39 years has built the $300 million company that bears his
name into one of the world’s premier lifestyle gift companies.
With global headquarters in Oakland, N.J.,
the company maintains offices and distribution centers in Cranbury,
N.J., Petaluma, California, Canada and England, as well as offices
in Hong Kong, China, Korea, Taiwan and Australia. It employs approximately
1,775 people worldwide, including an international sales force of
600. In 2001, RUSS acquired Sassy, Inc., a manufacturer of developmental
toys for infants up to 18 months of age.
In addition to his business accomplishments, Berrie devotes endless
energy and resources to numerous charitable causes. He was named one
of the 40 most generous Americans by Fortune Magazine in its February
6, 1998 issue. Most recently, he was honored with his wife, Angelica,
as Humanitarians of the Year by the New York Chapter, Juvenile Diabetes
Research Foundation International.
Jim Brown has been in sales for more than 30 years, most recently
as president of the Ardmore Group, Inc. in Mantoloking, N.J. Prior
to that he was vice president for national account sales at Automatic
Data Processing (ADP) in Roseland, N.J. He has taught sales and marketing
courses at Rutgers University and has worked as a sales person, business
executive and educator.
William Paterson University, one of the nine state colleges and universities
in New Jersey, offers 30 undergraduate and 19 graduate programs through
five colleges: Arts and Communication, the Christos M. Cotsakos College
of Business, Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Science
and Health. Located on 370 hilltop acres in Wayne, the University
enrolls approximately 11,000 students and provides housing for nearly
2,300 students. The institution’s 366 full-time faculty are
highly distinguished and diverse scholars and teachers, many of whom
are recipients of prestigious awards and grants from the Fulbright
Program (26 scholars), the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment
for the Humanities, the National Institutes of Health, the National
Science Foundation and the American Philosophical Society.
# # #
- 12/04/02
- For Further Information, contact:
- Mary Beth
Zeman, Director, Public Relations 973-720-2966
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