Drury, Edward Jones establish entrepreneurship center

St. Louis-based Edward Jones and Crystal and John Beuerlein, chair of the Drury University Board of Trustees and a principal of Edward Jones, are the donors behind the gift.

The Beuerleins are providing $1.5 million of the program’s seed money. Drury President John Sellars said the program should be fully funded by summer 2008 but won’t be fully operational for maybe five years later.

The center will be part of the Breech School of Business Administration, though Sellars expects its programs to attract nonbusiness students from across the campus, just as the university’s Students in Free Enterprise program has.

Students eventually will be able to earn a master’s degree or an undergraduate minor through the entrepreneurship program, which will actively recruit outside the United States. If the demand is there, Sellars said an undergraduate major might be in the cards.

Plans also include nondegree programs that target business leaders and managers. That portion of the center’s curriculum will explore topics that affect a business’ success in changing business environments, with the goal of arming current professionals with the tools to continually reinvent their organizations.

“I think (the center) will help with economic development,” Sellars said. “That’s one of our goals.”

The vision for the center has been led by a task force that includes local business faces Larry O’Reilly, Patti Penny, Robert Plaster and Jack Stack.

Edward Jones also helped open the Edward Jones Investment Center in February at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.

See SBJ’s Nov. 20 issue for more on entrepreneurship programs at local universities.