Alum funds retail program

Everything Penn students need, from the hamburgers they scarf down to the sweaters they wear to keep warm on cold winter nights, almost always have one thing in common -- they are purchased at retail stores in the Philadelphia area. Helping students learn about the importance of this industry is the purpose behind a $10 million gift recently made to the Wharton School. Jay Baker -- 1956 Wharton graduate and current member of the Board of Directors of Kohl's department stores -- and his wife Patty recently announced they would fund the Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative. The new program is designed to help expand Wharton's curriculum and share Baker's passion with Wharton undergraduate and graduate students. According to Wharton Marketing Chairman Stephen Hoch, "Jay loves Penn and loves retailing." Baker served as CEO of the British American Tobacco of the U.S. Buying Office. Hoch noted that Baker's "big success story" is that he and his colleagues were able to turn Kohl's into the extremely successful retail store it is today. Kohl's competes with leading department stores such as Macy's and Strawbridge & Clothier by selling name-brand items -- including Hanes, Levi's, Adidas and Jockey -- at lower prices than traditional department stores. Kohl's currently has nearly 400 stores around the country. Baker was also one of the donors who helped fund the newly constructed Huntsman Hall, giving $11 million to the project. So why did Baker donate so much money to Wharton? The purpose, according to the initiative's managing director and a 1998 Wharton graduate Bill Cody, "is to make a top caliber school, Wharton, a hotbed for retail." In order to create such a hotbed, Hoch noted that "the agenda for the Baker Retailing Initiative is multifold" and basically has three components. The first prong of the initiative is the student aspect. Career opportunities will be created for students in retail and related fields for both full and part-time employment. Next year, an MBA retailing class will be offered as well. In addition, guest speakers from the retail industry will be brought in to give students real life examples of retail success stories. The second aspect of the initiative is more general and involves the school and its faculty. This includes a multi-year faculty research project in marketing, operations and other related fields to show that "retail is multifaceted," Cody said. Cody hopes that students will realize that retail is more than marketing and also includes an array of entrepreneurial areas such as finance and real estate. The initiative's third goal relies on the overall benefit of research in the retail industry. Hoch hopes that the initiative will "get the word out to students that retailing is an exciting career, very dynamic and entrepreneurial." In order to learn this, students will be given the opportunity to apply for summer internships in the retail industry as well as to make contacts for permanent jobs down the line.