Endowed Chairs

The W. David Robbins Chair in Strategic Management

Current Holder (pictured):
Jeffrey S. Harrison (2004-2009)

Former Holders:
R. Duane Ireland (2000-2004)
W. David Robbins (1987-1994)

In the fall of 1986, Mr. Robert Jepson, Jr. of Elmhurst, Illinois, a 1964 graduate, gave the University of Richmond's E. Claiborne Robins School of Business a gift to establish the W. David Robbins Chair in Strategic Management, formerly called the W. David Robbins Chair of Business Policy, to honor the man he called "my favorite professor." Mr. Jepson was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Jepson Corporation, a diversified holding company, which he built into a 16-company conglomerate. When he sold it in 1989, the Fortune 500 company was doing over $700 million in annual sales.

Mr. Jepson also received his Master of Commerce degree from the University of Richmond in 1975 and an Honorary Doctor of Commercial Science degree in 1987. He was president of both Omicron Delta Kappa, the honorary national leadership society and the School of Business Administration Student Government Association while a student. The business school faculty unanimously voted him the Normal Medal as the most outstanding graduate of 1964.