University of Vermont alumnus Steven Grossman ’61 has made a second extraordinary gift that will launch a new era of excellence at the UVM business school that bears his name. As part of Grossman’s growing legacy at the university, this commitment will further solidify the Grossman School’s reputation as one of the nations’ preeminent business schools by expanding its top-ranked Sustainable Innovation MBA (SI-MBA) and Masters of Accountancy (MAcc) graduate programs, as well as undergraduate areas of excellence in entrepreneurship and family business.

The gift will establish new endowed chairs in both family business and entrepreneurship, as well as provide significant scholarship support to recruit and retain outstanding graduate students in the SI-MBA and MAcc programs. Grossman Dean Sanjay Sharma says the additional faculty and scholarship support will allow the school to expand these graduate programs significantly in the years to come. The funds will also provide four new staff positions to support Sharma’s strategic priorities in these areas. These include a digital marketing specialist to improve awareness of the school’s distinct offerings and increase graduate enrollments, as well as a career services specialist to build a strong career support program for SI-MBA students. The funds will also create staff positions to support the many existing and rapidly growing family business initiatives, including the world-renowned Schlesinger Global Family Enterprise Case Competition, the Sustainable Family Business Virtual Forums, and case development and publishing in the area of family business.

“What Steven Grossman has accomplished, both his personal success in his own family business but also here with his UVM family, has been nothing short of amazing,” said University of Vermont President Suresh Garimella. “This extraordinary generosity has catalyzed the growth and success of the Grossman School for nearly ten years now, and Steven’s most recent momentous philanthropic commitment will sustain that acceleration into the next decade and beyond.”

Grossman’s new personal philanthropic investment builds upon the success of the Grossman Family Foundation’s historic 2013 gift that transformed business education at the university. At the time, the Grossman Family Foundation’s support created new endowed chairs in sustainable business, entrepreneurship, and finance; helped the school revise and strengthen its undergraduate curriculum; and launched the SI-MBA program, which has since risen precipitously in national and international rankings. The UVM School of Business Administration was renamed in 2015 in tribute to Grossman’s visionary philanthropy.

The Grossman Family Foundation’s original gift created great momentum for further investments in the quality of the Grossman School faculty, facilities, programs, and scholarships. A series of matching gift challenges sparked an additional $18.8 million in philanthropic contributions from more than 350 other donors. When the newest gift’s $5 million challenge match component is met, Steven Grossman and the Grossman Family Foundation will have contributed or incentivized gifts to the Grossman School in excess of $75 million.

“I can’t thank Steven enough for his partnership and tireless dedication to the business school. He has so deftly focused his philanthropy on our areas of strength, on our programs of greatest potential, to build the reputation of the Grossman School of Business and, by extension, propel the university as a whole to national and international recognition,” said Sharma. “The Grossman School is now poised to take strategic next steps to continue to build its reputation as one of the world’s most distinctive business schools.”

Steven Grossman graduated from the UVM School of Business in 1961 and was the CEO of Southern Container Corporation until the sale of the company in 2008. He has served the university as a member of both the Foundation Board of Directors and the Foundation Leadership Council, and as a member of the Business School Board of Advisors. In addition to the philanthropic support already mentioned, he has also provided significant contributions to the SI-MBA Investment Fund and for the establishment of the Schlesinger-Grossman Chair of Family Business.

In the years following the Grossman Family Foundation’s 2013 investment, the Grossman School has been ranked among the top 25% of accredited undergraduate business programs in the United States by US News and World Report. It has seen a 33% increase in enrollments since 2011, a 24% increase in selectivity, and a 135-point increase in average SAT score.

The Sustainable Innovation MBA program has become world-renowned and is ranked the #1 accredited Green MBA program by Princeton Review for the past 5 years—the school was also named to the Princeton Review's 2021 Top Graduate Programs for Entrepreneurship list. In January 2020, the Grossman School was rated one of the top three schools in the U.S. and top nine in the world for positive societal impact at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland. Graduates of the Masters of Accounting program have one of the highest CPA pass rates in the country, and a remarkable 100% have jobs prior to graduation.

“My time at UVM had such a role in my own success in business. I am proud to play a part in seeing that other students have the same—and today an even better—experience than I had,” said Grossman. “Over the past nine years, the Grossman School has achieved excellence in many areas, garnering recognition from all over the globe. But there is untold greatness on the horizon, and our sails are full in pursuit of it.”

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Fundraising for the Grossman School of Business is a major focus for the University of Vermont Foundation, a nonprofit corporation established to secure and manage private support for the benefit of the University of Vermont. To inquire about making a gift to the Grossman School, please contact Anna Marie Gewirtz at 802-391-9977 or Anna-Marie.Gewirtz@uvm.edu. More information about the impact of donors like Steven Grossman and the work of the UVM Foundation can be found at www.uvmfoundation.org.