PetsMart Endows Faculty Chair
The founding and current chief executives of PetsMart Inc. (Phoenix)
have established a new faculty chair at Indiana University’s
Kelley School of Business in Bloomington, Ind., where both executives
earned advanced degrees.
Samuel J. Parker, a 1969 Kelley graduate, and Philip L. Francis,
a 1971 Kelley graduate and the company’s current chief
executive officer, together with their wives and the Phoenix-based
chain itself are giving $1.5 million to the Kelley School
for the PetsMart Distinguished Marketing Chair.
”The Marketing Department at the Kelley School has
long been ranked among the top 10 in the nation. Maintaining
that elite status depends largely on our ability to attract
and retain world-class faculty. We are proud to be honored
with an endowed chair that bears the PetsMart name and are
deeply grateful to Phil and Juanita Francis and to Sam and
Sandra Parker for their generosity,” said Dan Smith,
interim dean of the Kelley School.
The school will conduct a national search to locate a scholar
who specializes in critical issues related to retail marketing,
particularly database marketing and customer relationship
management—and who is a pet parent.
The endowment is PetsMart’s second in a year’s
time. Last spring, the company gave $1 million to the School
of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Arizona
(Tucson) to establish the PetsMart Endowed Professorship in
Retailing and Consumer Sciences. [April 2005 PET AGE]
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