PC alumnus pledges $5M for Center for Business Studies

PROVIDENCE COLLEGE alumnus and retired Prudential Financial Inc. executive Arthur F. Ryan has pledged $5 million to help establish the Arthur and Patricia Ryan Center for Business Studies; a rendering of the center is pictured. / COURTESY PROVIDENCE COLLEGE
PROVIDENCE COLLEGE alumnus and retired Prudential Financial Inc. executive Arthur F. Ryan has pledged $5 million to help establish the Arthur and Patricia Ryan Center for Business Studies; a rendering of the center is pictured. / COURTESY PROVIDENCE COLLEGE

PROVIDENCE – A $5 million pledge from Providence College alumnus and retired Prudential Financial Inc. executive Arthur F. Ryan will be used to help establish the Arthur and Patricia Ryan Center for Business Studies, the university announced Tuesday.
Ryan, the retired chairman and CEO of Prudential, earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the college and received honorary degrees from both his alma mater and from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
The new center will house the college’s School of Business, which was accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business in 2012. The school offers programs in accountancy, finance, management and marketing and a graduate MBA. The center also will provide a learning environment for the college’s business students and teachers, as well as a place for faculty and staff to work.
The new 64,000-square-foot, four-story facility, designed by Symmes Maini & McKee Associates of Cambridge, Mass., will include a glass atrium entrance, classrooms, conference rooms, computer labs, collaboration rooms, interviews suites and a student café. A “town square” for community-wide gatherings is also part of the plan.
“Arthur Ryan is one of the most successful businessmen who ever came out of PC,” said College President Rev. Brian J. Shanley. “He learned that business is not just about making money, but also about giving back to the community. Art and Pat have been benefactors to countless projects, and it really was important to have this building named in their honor so that people will remember them.”
The naming of the center after Ryan is a “subtle way” of encouraging students to aspire to the level of success achieved by Ryan, Shanley added.
Ryan served as chairman and CEO of Prudential for 14 years before retiring in 2008. When he was named to the position in 1994, he became the first chairman and CEO in the company’s history to be elected from outside the company.
“This gift represents an investment in the college that has meant so much to me,” said Ryan. “I look forward to the day – very soon – when our students and faculty will have access to a business facility that matches their collective intellect, passion, and commitment to the ideals of Providence College.”
In April 2014, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked the college’s School of Business 75th among the nation’s best undergraduate business programs. The ranking jumped 34 spots, due to an improved employer survey score, the college said.

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