Four years later, several generous donors stepped forward to help the center expand as it continues to explore the role of entrepreneurship in advancing the well-being of society.

Donations announced at the end of 2019 totaling more than $5.7 million will allow the center to add two tenure-track faculty members in entrepreneurship and up to five doctoral fellows, plus staff for the center. The center will also partner with the Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship to examine ideas related to free enterprise through the lens of principled entrepreneurship.

The donors are:

• John Menard Jr., founder and owner of the chain of home improvement stores, $3 million
• Joseph W. Craft III Foundation, $2 million; 
• , a founding donor continuing its support, $737,000.

“Our students benefit from the rich experiences the Center for Free Enterprise provides,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi. “We are grateful for the opportunity to continue to inspire our community’s future business leaders through these generous gifts.” 

Since the center , it has hosted speakers on topics such as criminal justice reform, the transformation of China, crypto-currency and entrepreneurship in Senegal. Beginning in the Spring 2020 semester, the speaker series has been renamed the Menard Family Speaker Series.

“We will continue to reach a breadth of students, alumni and the public with our speaker series,” said Stephan Gohmann, director of the center. “Additionally, I’m excited the center is expanding into entrepreneurship, as many of our students are interested in starting businesses and innovating within their companies.”

The center also hosts reading groups that attract students from across the university.

Menards is a privately-owned and family-run home improvement business with 325 stores and 41 manufacturing facilities located in 14 Midwestern states.��Read an open letter from the Menard Family .��

Craft, a native of Hazard, Kentucky, and a graduate of the University of Kentucky, is president, CEO and chairman of Alliance Resource Partners LP, the second largest coal producer in the eastern United States.

The Charles Koch Foundation has funded over 400 programs at more than 250 U.S. colleges and universities. Its goal is to “break barriers that stand in the way of people realizing their potential through grant funding to scholars, students and partners developing creative solutions that empower individuals to transform their lives and to improve society.”

The Menard Family Speaker Series begins Jan. 30 with author James Otteson, Thomas W. Smith Presidential Chair in Business Ethics and economics professor at Wake Forest University. His talk will be, “Honorable Business: A Framework for Business in a Just and Humane Society.”

On Feb. 19, the center will present Clifton Taulbert, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated co-author of the book “Who Owns the Ice House? Eight Life Lessons from an Unlikely Entrepreneur.”

The series closes April 8 with a panel discussion and debate on school choice featuring Corey DeAngelis, Cato Institute Center for ����ֱ��al Freedom; Angela Dills, Western Carolina University; Peter Greene, The Progressive; and Helen Ladd, Duke University.

Check the Center’s for times, locations and more information.

“Y’all focus on winning,” Tyra told them. “Y’all focus on making great grades. I’ll take care of the rest.”

He told students at the College of Business in a talk Sept. 12 that he was confident he could transfer his business skills to the athletic department. All he had to do was use and teach the values he had developed throughout his career.

“We’ve needed change,” Tyra said. “These values will stick.”

Tyra was the first guest of the Center for Free Enterprise’s Fall Speaker Series. During his hour-long talk, “Business Values on the Field and in the Office,” he described how he has put the athletics department on a course for success by focusing on developing core values such as:

• Choose integrity first.
• Be accountable to the student-athletes.
• We win together: As decisions are made, consider the constituents.
• Treat customers so well that “they should feel guilty about not attending games and supporting us.”
• Always seek to improve.
• Share the “organizational playbook.” In other words, be transparent.

He also shared some tips that have worked for him throughout his career, such as the importance of being a good listener.

“Be quick to listen and slow to speak,” he said.

A former college baseball pitcher, Tyra said it is important to stay “focused on the batter” and to be a team player.

“I always say, ‘discuss, decide, support,’” he said.

Students said in surveys of the talk that they were inspired by Tyra’s words.

“My opinions were strengthened on how being ethical in everything you do can help you be successful,” one student wrote.