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It’s hard to imagine the UCLA Anderson School of Management without Senior Associate Dean Al Osborne and Adjunct Professor Bill Cockrum. These two beloved faculty members have been an integral part of the development and success of UCLA Anderson for a combined 88 years. Professor Osborne joined UCLA in 1972 and recruited Cockrum just over a decade later to teach a class in entrepreneurial finance. Since then, they’ve become close colleagues who invest both in the school and the thousands of students who have walked through their classroom doors. Act now and make a gift in honor of their legacies, before they retire on June 30th.
Al’s and Bill’s legacies are built upon their everlasting relationships with students, commitments to teaching and experiential learning, and philosophies on philanthropy. Through the years, they have mentored thousands of students. Many students and alumni owe their career success to the investments Osborne and Cockrum made in them.
They also share a strong affinity to the Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Osborne created the entrepreneurial program in the 1980s with former Dean Clay LaForce. A significant gift from the Louis and Harold Price Foundation enabled the program to provide new curriculum offerings and experiential learning opportunities for students, such as the Venture Fellows Program launched by Osborne. One of Cockrum’s notable contributions within the Price Center was the creation of the Student Investment Fund, which has prospered from his expertise and efforts. This program has paid dividends to the school by allowing students to manage assets that in turn support student financial need at UCLA Anderson.
Osborne and Cockrum share similar philosophies on philanthropy: leading with empathy and paying it forward.
Osborne believes in the “charitable quotient”-- creating access and opportunity through education and experiential learning; mentoring, connecting and sustaining relationships; the power of philanthropy; and encouraging others to give in these ways as well. His commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion is memorialized through the Alfred E. Osborne, Jr. MBA Fellowship to support access for African-American students who may otherwise not be able to pursue a graduate degree at UCLA Anderson. Professor Osborne and his wife, Nancy Rahnasto Osborne ’80, have been significant donors to UCLA Anderson.
Cockrum believes in “paying it forward.” Because he was once in the position of choosing between attending school and working, Cockrum empathizes with the financial barriers students face in order to pursue a graduate degree. He has given over $10 million to UCLA Anderson and established the Professor William M. Cockrum Fellowship to provide financial assistance to MBA students who share a similar commitment to “paying it forward.”
Please join the UCLA Anderson community in honoring the legacies of Bill Cockrum and Al Osborne by making a gift to the Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Professor William M. Cockrum Fellowship, or the Alfred E. Osborne, Jr. MBA Fellowship. All gifts made to the Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and the Alfred E. Osborne, Jr. MBA Fellowship will be matched 1:1 up to $3 million by the Price Foundation.
For additional ways to make a gift, please contact Christina Behrens, Assistant Director, Annual Giving, at (310) 486-2883 or christina.behrens@anderson.ucla.edu.
Gifts are managed and invested in accordance with UCLA’s endowment investment policies. The total return earned in excess of the amount approved annually for payout will be retained in the endowment principal to protect from the effects of inflation and to allow for growth. At the discretion of the appropriate campus office, when the payout is not needed for purposes of the fund, the return of payout may be added to the endowment fund principal. In the event the fund does not reach endowment minimum; or the program ceases to exist at UCLA, proceeds from the fund will be utilized in an area and manner as closely related as possible to the original intent and purposes for which the fund was established.
Although the Endowment is intended to exist in perpetuity, unforeseen circumstances may alter or remove the subject area from the campus academic plan or it may become impossible, impracticable or wasteful to administer. In such an event, the Chancellor is authorized to redesignate the purpose of the Endowment, after taking into consideration the designated endowment purpose.
Gifts directed to Regental endowments supporting UCLA are invested in a similar way to gifts made to The Foundation.
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