Wharton gets $2m donation

The contribution will support the Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center. The Wharton School announced a $2 million gift yesterday from Ed Snider, chairperson of Comcast Spectacor, to support the school's Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center. Through Comcast, Snider owns or controls a large chunk of Philadelphia's sports entertainment, including the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers, their television rights, and their venues -- the CoreStates Center and CoreStates Spectrum. He founded and endowed the Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center in 1985 in honor of his father, a Russian immigrant who created a chain of supermarkets in Washington, D.C. The Center's stated mission is "to provide a greater understanding of the practice of entrepreneurship." "This generous gift from Ed Snider will enable Wharton to continue as the leading business school committed to the study of entrepreneurship and business venturing," Wharton Dean Thomas Gerrity said in a prepared statement. Wharton recently merged an undergraduate Entrepreneurial Management major based at the Center into a general Management major. Snider's ventures have been diverse, ranging from sports management to movie making to the advocacy of author Ayn Rand's laissez-faire philosophy of objectivism. He entered Philadelphia lore as the man who saved the Spectrum, putting together $8 million in 1972 to bail out the bankrupt arena. "It was a great risk that I never would take today," Snider told Nation's Business magazine in 1989. "But young men take gambles. I just never gave it a thought that I might fail." Some 20 years later, he helped finance the construction of the CoreStates Center, and also owns Ticketmaster of Delaware Valley. But Snider is more than just a sports magnate, and his Spectator Films has produced such television movies as The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro and The Penthouse, starring Robin Givens. Snider tried to produce a movie version of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged -- a book which he said "blew him away" -- but was unable to complete the project. "It says that a man's work is his life," he told Nation's Business in 1989. "The monetary reward is what measures his work. That does not mean I'm doing it for the money, but the money is the measure of success." In 1985, Snider co-founded The Ayn Rand Institute with Rand's self-appointed "heir" Leonard Peikoff. "The Institute's Purpose is to move objectivism into today's universities," the group's web page says. Institute Executive Director Michael Berliner described Snider as "a moving force for getting the Institute going," adding that he went with "[Snider] to the first Flyers game where [Flyers goaltender Ron] Hextall played." Snider has increasingly taken a hands-off approach to his holdings. "I love to create new businesses and see them work," he told Nation's Business in 1989. "When it gets to the day-to-day management, it's something I don't particularly enjoy. So I find others who enjoy it and can do a better job." Last year he merged his umbrella company Spectacor with the Comcast Corporation, which has stakes in everything from the entertainment behemoth QVC to the E! Entertainment channel to non-exclusive broadcast rights to University of Pennsylvania sports. Indeed, the connection between Snider and the University runs even deeper -- Snider now owns Spectaguard, the University's private security company. The University signed an agreement to consolidate all of its security services under Spectaguard last semester, and the company took over operations at the beginning of the current semester in January. Spectaguard was founded by Snider's son, Jay, after he graduated from Wharton in 1980. Ed Snider is on vacation and could not be reached for comment.