Announcement of Global Marketing Professorship Highlights Ford Day at Fuqua

Ford Day is one of the busiest and most popular days of the annual recruiting season on the Duke campus, especially at The Fuqua School of Business. The day also marks the conclusion of the Strategic Marketing Program, a weeklong tailored executive program for Ford managers. This year, Ford Day was also the occasion for a major announcement that demonstrates the growing strength of the Ford-Fuqua partnership.

Further cementing a relationship that dates back to 1989, the company announced a $1 million gift to the School, which along with other funds, creates the Ford Motor Company Professorship of Global Marketing. According to Dean Rex D. Adams, the new professorship will give students and executives, including Ford executives, the opportunity to learn from one of the world's pre-eminent international marketing experts.

"The Ford-Fuqua partnership is a strong and enduring one," said Adams during a presentation in Geneen Auditorium that was attended by members of the Fuqua community and a large number of Ford representatives. "It has a positive impact on many areas of our School, including recruiting, executive education, and program support. This professorship will help us to attract additional scholars of the highest order. We are extremely pleased that Ford has taken a leadership role in this important initiative."

The announcement of the Ford Motor Company Professorship of Global Marketing was made by Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane. Robert L. Rewey Jr., Ford group vice president and a member of the Fuqua Board of Visitors, presented the gift on behalf of the company. Rewey also gave an update on the automaker's global strategic initiative, Ford 2000.

In 1989, the Fuqua-Ford relationship was established when the company began actively recruiting Fuqua students. Since then, Ford has hired 29 graduates and placed 30 interns. Ford has also sent more than 800 mid- and senior managers to Fuqua's strategic marketing programs. Last year the company extended a five-year, $175,000 grant to fund the Ford Workshop for Minority MBA Applicants, a long-running Fuqua program aimed at recruiting minority students to business school. Ford also serves as lead sponsor for the Fuqua-MBA Games for N.C. Special Olympics.

"They are by far the most integrated corporation at the School," said Pitt Tomlinson, Fuqua's director of corporation relations. "Ford exemplifies the type of corporate partnership that Fuqua strives for...It's both ways and it's corporate and academic."

In keeping with tradition, the day was topped off with a pig pickin', an informal social gathering for Ford managers and executives and members of the Fuqua community.