Gifts in Action - Peter and Kim Fox

MEET PETER AND KIM FOX

A native of Urbana and graduate of Stanford University, Peter B. Fox is founder and principal of Fox Development Corporation, which specializes in developing and leasing office and retail property in Champaign-Urbana. He is also co-founder, president and CEO of Fox Ventures, which focuses on start-ups in Champaign County, and is manager of Fox-Atkins Development, which is developing the U of I Research Park in Champaign. He formerly was senior managing director of Bear, Stearns and Company. Owner of seven Wendy’s hamburger franchises early in his business career, he also served as chairman of the Illinois State Lottery and as director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs.

Kim B. Fox is president of Fox Development Corporation. Early in her career she was a staff member for Illinois Governor Jim Thompson and held key director positions in his re-election campaigns. She is active in many local organizations, including her church, art club and others.

HOW THEY GAVE

A significant gift from the couple will fund four professorships on the Urbana-Champaign campus. The Fox Family Professorship Fund will be used to establish one professorship in the College of Business, one in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering, one in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a fourth professorship that will rotate among academic units and programs as designated by the chancellor of the Urbana-Champaign campus.

The purpose of the Fox Fund is to stimulate entrepreneurship and economic development in Champaign County. Fox Professors will be individuals who combine an outstanding record of academic achievement with business acumen and demonstrated success in the private sector.

“Entrepreneurship spans a spectrum of disciplines, and the Fox Fund was created to seed entrepreneurship through professorships in several of them at the University,” said Peter Fox.

This gift adds to the generous support the Fox family has provided to the U of I, including the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, the Krannert Art Museum, the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics, the Department of Chemical and Molecular Engineering and the Colleges of Business and Engineering, especially the V. Dale Cozad Business Plan Competition in the Technology Entrepreneur Center, with the Cozad Prize serving as a catalyst for winners to secure more than $10 million in private support so far. Funding for the competition marked the beginning of the Foxes’ giving to stimulate economic development and help the U of I attract and retain the best faculty.

WHY THEY GAVE

“Our family feels privileged to live here in Champaign-Urbana, and we’ve always considered the University of Illinois the intellectual and economic engine of the community and well beyond. We are gratified to make a commitment to this tremendous asset and believe it will benefit the University and community alike,” said Peter Fox.

Peter Fox said U of I leadership has embraced a fourth mission — economic development — that is having a positive impact on the academic culture. He said the U of I, which he considers the greatest asset in Champaign-Urbana, can benefit from and in turn provide benefit to the community through entrepreneurship. He noted that the Research Triangle Park at Raleigh-Durham, N.C., has effectively developed and transferred technologies for 50 years. The U of I’s Research Park is only five years old, but coupled with the U of I Office of Technology Management, IllinoisVENTURES, L.L.C., and other units, it is beginning to have an impact not only in recruiting and retaining faculty, but in swaying talented students to remain in the community after graduating from the University.

The U of I, Fox noted, graduates 7,000 to 8,000 students each year. If five percent of them remained in Champaign-Urbana because of quality job opportunities, “it would make a huge difference to the business formation here.”

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

“Endowed professorships or chairs are a way to recruit the best faculty. Our goal is to increase the number of endowed positions to 500 in the next five to seven years. The Fox Professorships will create an even closer link between the research of this campus and society,” said Chancellor Richard Herman.