Building Corporate Relations

Iowa State President Gregory Geoffroy spoke last fall at a gathering of Iowa State University alumni at the Boeing Corporation in St. Louis.

There are hundreds of companies and charitable foundations that the Iowa State University Foundation can work with in any number of fashions.

However, the Foundation’s Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR) Office focuses on just a few of those firms, and a new initiative will work with four corporations even more strategically.

"We have identified those corporations with the greatest opportunities for Iowa State, its faculty and students," said John Glover, executive director of corporate and foundation relations. "We have determined whom our key partners are in any number of areas."

"That includes who’s hiring our graduates and has been doing so for years, those who wish to invest from a research or philanthropic perspective as well as other partnering opportunities. Those firms rise to the top and we devote as much time and energy to them as possible."

These corporations and foundations include, among others, Cargill, John Deere, the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, Conoco-Phillips, Wells Fargo, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, and the Principal Financial Group.

The CFR office facilitates the development of strategic, mutually beneficial partnerships between corporations and foundations and the Iowa State community. Glover says that leadership support from corporations and foundations is critical to the university’s continued success in creating and sustaining innovative programs in and beyond the classroom, and also in attracting and retaining exceptional students and faculty.

A quick campus tour shows ways in which corporations and foundations have helped transform Iowa State’s campus. From three different laboratories that bear the W.M. Keck Foundation’s name to the Carver Co-Laboratory on the northwest side of campus. Walk through Hoover Hall, Howe Hall and Gerdin Business Building as well as to many other campus structures, and you will see names of corporations and foundations attached to classrooms, faculty offices, conference rooms, and laboratories.

"Our role is to help facilitate as many opportunities as possible," Glover said. "We work with key leaders of these entities and colleges and departments on campus to build strong partnerships."

For four corporations, those partnerships will see an even bigger push in the weeks and months ahead. The CFR Office, in conjunction with Iowa State’s Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, is piloting a comprehensive effort with key corporations.

"We want to continue to move these relationships forward and engage as many people on campus with that effort as possible," Glover said.

Small campus management teams will be formed to coordinate and manage the on-campus activity with these corporations that have a large, wide interest in many units on campus.

"We’re going to discuss the opportunities in front of us and make sure everyone is aware of what is going on with those corporations," Glover said.

The Boeing Company, Caterpillar, Monsanto, and Pfizer, Inc., are the initial focus of the pilot program. Glover says a key factor as to why these firms were selected is each has indicated to Iowa State that the university "is important to us".

"These corporations have said they wish to partner with us and that they wish to continue to invest time and energy at Iowa State," Glover said. "Iowa State needs to do the same and hopefully open up other opportunities for our academic programs."

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