General Electric presented MIT with the first installment of a grant from the GE Fund to the Institute's Faculty of the Future program. The $300,000 grant will sustain and stimulate the Sloan School's Minority Business Leaders (MBL) program and assist in increasing the presence of minority faculty in the nation's business schools.
Thomas Brisken, General Electric's MIT executive, presented President Charles M. Vest with the donation on February 18. Also at the meeting were Associate Dean of Engineering John Vander Sande, William Culbert from the Corporate Relations ILP Office, and John Bourneuf, GE's MIT campus coordinator.
Since 1989, GE has earmarked a total of $15 million for Faculty of the Future programs and has donated more than $1 million to MIT's program, Mr. Brisken noted. In thanking GE, Dr. Vest noted that the firm is a leader among corporations making substantial grants to promote diversity at MIT and noted that the Institute is top-ranked in granting doctorates to minorities and women.
GE interviewed more than 125 MIT students last fall for entry as either full-time hires or into programs such as the GE Technical Leadership Program.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on March 12, 1997.
