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NEWS RELEASE:

UCLA Anderson to Launch New Marketing Center

$10 million gift creates Morrison Family Center for
Marketing Studies And Data Analytics

Los Angeles (April 14, 2015) — UCLA Anderson is thrilled to announce a gift of $10 million to launch a new marketing center. Donald Morrison, UCLA Anderson professor emeritus, and his wife, Sherie Morrison, UCLA distinguished professor of microbiology, immunology, & molecular genetics, provided the gift to establish the center, which will be named the Morrison Family Center for Marketing Studies and Data Analytics. Their donation is the largest single gift from a UCLA Anderson faculty member.

The Morrison Family Center will serve as a global resource for academics and practitioners as they use data and analytical tools to advance understanding of consumer markets and behaviors. The gift will enhance UCLA Anderson's marketing curriculum and academic research. The center will interface with the practicing marketing community and professional activities in this rapidly expanding field.

“Marketing isn’t just about creative thinking today,” says Don Morrison. “It includes more quantitative research that incorporates the art of econometrics, big data, psychology, behavioral research – all under the umbrella of ‘marketing studies.’ This center will support visiting scholars and Ph.D. students’ interaction across disciplines. It will also offer funding for faculty, and Ph.D. student research and conference participation to enhance the impact of research in the marketing field.”

The Morrisons are long-time supporters and academic leaders of UCLA, providing financial support for a number of the university’s most critical areas of need that include athletics, biomedical sciences and UCLA Anderson, where both of their daughters earned their MBAs. Much of their philanthropy was made possible by Sherie Morrison’s trailblazing work developing genetically engineered antibodies. That research was lauded as a scientific breakthrough and spawned development of many therapeutics. Sherie continues her advanced research studies using antibody-based therapeutics to treat cancer.

"Don and Sherie are star members of the UCLA community, “says UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian. “Their vision for the Morrison Family Center for Marketing Studies and Data Analytics is inspiring and bold. This gift is truly heartwarming, coming from such beloved members of our community and a huge source of pride and inspiration as we launch ’Into The Next, The Campaign for UCLA Anderson’.”

“Giving is about where your money and time make a difference,” says Sherie Morrison. “One of the reasons we have been generous with Anderson is due to our two daughters who earned their MBAs there, and who now enjoy very successful business careers. And during the 27 years that Don and I have been with UCLA, I have been embraced by the Anderson community.”

$1 million of the financial support to launch the new center came from The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation through Richard S. Ziman and Martin Blank, Trustees. Ziman, a leading Southern California real estate executive with a long history of philanthropic giving for education and community causes, endowed the Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA.

The Gilbert Foundation also has been a very significant supporter at UCLA, establishing The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Law School, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair in Interdepartmental Clinical Pharmacology at the Reagan Medical Center, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair in Israel Studies and at UCLA Anderson, the UCLA Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Program in Real Estate, Finance and Urban Economics, as well as numerous programs in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

The Gilbert Foundation will sponsor several events within the Morrison Family Center, including a lecture series, conferences, and an annual marketing camp.

Don Morrison is no stranger to quantitative research that has become an integral part of the marketing field. He has taught courses in probability, statistics, and management operations since receiving his Ph.D. in operations research in 1965 from Stanford University. At UCLA Anderson, he served as professor of management beginning in 1988, holding the William E. Leonhard Chair. During his academic tenure, he authored more than 90 articles that focused on marketing and applied statistics, served as an expert witness in a number of legal cases, a consultant to industrial firms and governmental agencies, and co-authored a seminal book, “Stochastic Models of Buying Behavior” with William F. Massey and David B. Montgomery. He has been a mentor to Ph.D. students, young faculty and athletes, having served as the faculty athletic representative for UCLA’s athletic department from 1994 to 2014.

Sherie Morrison holds B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in biology from Stanford University. She served as scientific advisor at IDEC Pharmaceuticals (now Biogen), and spent a sabbatical year in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Professor Paul Berg at Stanford in 1982. Dr. Morrison was a professor in the Department of Microbiology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, which followed various post-doctoral fellowships at Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She joined the faculty of UCLA in 1988 and currently holds the endowed M. Philip Davis Chair in Microbiology and Immunology. During her academic career, she developed the antibody technology used to treat arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and some infectious diseases.

About UCLA Anderson School of Management

UCLA Anderson School of Management is among the leading business schools in the world, with faculty members globally renowned for their teaching excellence and research in advancing management thinking. Located in Los Angeles, gateway to the growing economies of Latin America and Asia and a city that personifies innovation in a diverse range of endeavors, UCLA Anderson's MBA, Fully-Employed MBA, Executive MBA, Global Executive MBA for Asia Pacific, Global Executive MBA for the Americas, Master of Financial Engineering, doctoral and executive education programs embody the school's Think In The Next ethos. Annually, some 1,800 students are trained to be global leaders seeking the business models and community solutions of tomorrow.

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