April 27, 2013 was a special day in the history of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. Not only was the newly renovated Offutt School of Business officially dedicated, billionaire philanthropist and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates was part of the festivities. “What a great day for Concordia College,” said President Dr. William Craft.

3,800 tickets were given out to Saturday’s events, many of them to area students. A tireless champion of education, Gates requested that students be seated in the front of the auditorium and that the Q&A portion of the event included only students. The questions presented to Gates were focused primarily on education, poverty, and global health reform. “The quality of the questions showed thoughtful and informed students,” President Craft remarked after the ceremony.

Gates spent much of his speech focusing on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which he called “his second career.” After stepping down as CEO of Microsoft in 2008, Gates has “focused more on giving away than making money.” To date, the Foundation has made grant payments totaling over $26.1 billion dollars, including $3.4 billion in 2012. Much of the Foundation’s focus has been in the areas of global health and improvement, but Gates’ commitment to excellence in education is what brought him to Moorhead. “It is a wonderful time to be a student,” he said. “When I was young, I had to read the World Book alphabetically.”

Three large screens projected Gates’ speech onto the crowd, who frequently broke into spontaneous applause throughout the program, especially in regards to education and caring for the nation’s children. “Education is the key to the strength of the country and it being able to deliver on the promise of equity,” he remarked, speaking also about his commitment to children and the Foundation’s goal of eradicating diseases like polio and malaria through global immunization programs. “Ultimately, our success is going to be measured by how much we reduced the number of children who are dying,” he said.

Gates also talked at length about philanthropy and the need for everyone to work together to solve the world’s biggest issues. He discussed the “Giving Pledge,” which is an effort to help address society’s most pressing problems by inviting the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to commit to giving more than half of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes. Gates stressed that philanthropy also includes giving of one’s time. Eventually, he hopes future generations will think of philanthropy as standard practice. “We need to cultivate a habit of philanthropy,” he said, adding that young people learn from their parents’ example.

According to Pres. Craft, Gates visit was coordinated in part by Harold Hamm, who introduced Gates. Hamm is a leader in the oil and gas industry and part of the Giving Pledge along with his wife Sue Ann. “We have always felt a strong obligation to lead by example,” Hamm says on the Giving Pledge’s website. “Through our giving pledge, we hope to encourage others to commit their time and resources to worthy causes that will enable other people with ambition and tenacity to achieve their goals.”

Although Gates’ presence brought a fevered buzz to the festivities, the real star of the day was the Offutt School of Business, which will provide top-notch educational services for decades to come. Concordia broke ground on the Grant Center renovations, home for the Offutt School of Business, on June 2, 2011. Classes began in the facility on January 9, 2013 after $16.2 worth of renovations, including adding an additional story. The building is now 53,000 square feet and includes 14 classroom spaces with state-of-the-art learning technology and green technologies designed for saving energy.

Classrooms are intentionally small to offer maximum student/faculty interaction. “We try to keep class size between 20 and 25 students,” said Dr. Greg Cant, Dean of the School of Business. In addition to classrooms, the School also features the RDO Friends and Family Conference Room, an ultramodern space open to area businesses and organizations.

The Offutt School of Business is named for Ronald Offutt, a 1964 alumnus who donated a substantial gift for the business school. Offutt is the founder and chairman of R.D. Offutt Co. and oversees an eight-state farming enterprise covering 160,000 acres, the largest potato farm operation in the country. In addition, Offutt owns RDO Equipment Company, the largest network of John Deere construction and agricultural equipment dealerships in the country.

The School of Business is grounded in the liberal arts and is focused on the critical skills of global understanding, entrepreneurship, ethics, and leadership. It is home to the following programs:

Accounting:

Business:

– Economic

– Finance

– Healthcare Administration

– Healthcare Finance Management

– Healthcare Leadership

– Long-term Care Administration

– Management Information Systems

– Marketing

– Organizational Leadership

– Computer Science

International Business:

The School is also home to the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), which serves both West Central and Northwest Minnesota. The SBDC offers:

• Services for existing businesses

• Services for start-ups

• Training workshops and seminars

• Professional, confidential consulting

The dedication was a special event for Offutt and his family. “This is an epic day in the life of Ron Offutt,” he said in his opening remarks. “He (Gates) has opened windows to the world; today he opens doors to the Offutt School of Business.”

More information on Concordia College can be obtained at www.cord.edu. More information on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or the Giving Pledge can be obtained at gatesfoundation.org or www.givingpledge.org.