I’m pleased to announce that Rutgers University has received a $2 million gift from the Foundation for Enterprise Development to establish the J. Robert Beyster Professorship of Employee Ownership. The Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations will receive the endowed chair. I have been working closely with Dr. Joseph Blasi at Rutgers for many years and feel he and his colleagues are at the forefront of the employee ownership field. Similar but smaller gifts have been given to a number of other universities to further advance research into employee ownership on a widespread basis.
Last Wednesday afternoon I was visited by Craig Venter and John Evey of the Venter Institute. They disclosed to me their developing plans for the new voyage of Sorcerer II. I am supporting these activities and believe very strongly that Venter — as evidenced by his already outstanding contributions to gene therapy and genomics — has the right approach. This expedition’s purpose is to sample the waters between here and Panama, then to New England, Europe, and back again. They are looking for new microorganisms that may be turn out to be useful in their research. I’m hoping with a little luck that I can join them in Panama since I’ve never seen the Panama Canal.
Other than that, I went out on my boat Solutions on Friday and we traveled to Oceanside to have lunch at the Jolly Roger. Rick Strobridge accompanied us on the trip. In all, I kept pretty busy this week.