SDSU to Receive $100K from Beyster Fellowship
for Employee Ownership Research

Contact: Suzanne Finch, Chief Communications Officer
SDSU College of Business Administration
(619) 594-0206 sfinch@mail.sdsu.edu

SAN DIEGO (April 24, 2008) – The College of Business Administration at San Diego State University (SDSU) announced today that the College’s Entrepreneurial Management Center (EMC) has received a $100,000 gift from the Foundation for Enterprise Development™ as a Beyster Fellowship. The gift will support research on organizational inclusiveness and equity distribution practices and their performance impacts on San Diego’s privately-held life science and technology companies.
 
The research will offer SDSU faculty the resources needed to develop teaching modules and mini-case studies that can be used in course work and will provide information on the employee ownership practices of San Diego’s life sciences and entrepreneurial organizations. The project will begin in June 2008 will be completed within a one-year period.

“This gift is significant in that it studies the influence of employee ownership on a company’s structure and performance and allows SDSU to share this valuable data with our students and the business community at-large,” said Dr. Sanford Ehrlich, the EMC’s QUALCOMM Executive Director of Entrepreneurship.

The Foundation for Enterprise Development was established by Dr. J.R. Beyster, founder of Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC) for the purpose of promoting business principles and practices that encourage free enterprise and advance science and technology innovations with impact on nationally important interests.

During the project, the SDSU faculty will work closely with Mary Ann Beyster, who serves as the Foundation’s president. “The need for the study and research of employee ownership within corporations is crucial for determining future growth for the San Diego economic region,” said Beyster. “This gift will provide the needed resources to fund and distribute this vital information.”