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CSU business school establishes new name after multimillion-dollar gift

Staff //January 24, 2022//

CSU business school establishes new name after multimillion-dollar gift

Staff //January 24, 2022//

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The Nielsen family presents a $2 million gift to CSU. From left, CSU College of Business Dean David Palmer, Vice President of Development David Baggs, CSU President Dondi Costin and Roger, Brian, Joyce and Kristen Nielsen. (Photo/Provided)New year, new name.

Charleston Southern University has established the Hans A. Nielsen College of Business after receiving a $2 million commitment from 1974 alumnus Roger Nielsen and his family.

The CSU board of trustees approved the naming of the business school, which had been called the College of Business, after Nielsen, his wife, Joyce, and their children, Brian and Kristen, gifted the school in honor of Roger’s father, Hans A. Nielsen.

The gift will help the CSU’s business school build on its brand in the global education community, Dean of the Hans A. Nielsen College of Business David Palmer said in a statement.

“Improved presence and visibility require more faculty research, conference presentations, publications, and service in the business learning community,” Palmer said. “The gift will also improve excellence through better teaching, online learning, and physical assets. Ultimately, it provides a differentiated brand for our business alumni in the years to come.”

Nielsen, who studied accounting at the business school, is the owner of Philadelphia-based Abbey Color Inc. He credits much of his success to the college and together he and his family have been long-time supporters of the university.

Previous gifts from the Nielsens include supporting CSU’s Center for Personal Financial Management and the creation of the Community Research Institute. The family also committed $500,000 to CSU’s baseball program in 2018 and later earned recognition for funding the university’s Singleton Baseball Complex.

“We were taught to create wealth, not accumulate it,” Nielsen said in a statement. “It is our family’s prayer that this naming of the College of Business will assist in bringing opportunities to the university that will provide a revenue stream for not only the university, but for staff, faculty and students as well.”

The Hans A. Nielsen College of Business will celebrate its opening later this spring.

“Roger and his family have extended their legacy as difference makers by investing their resources to support generations of CSU students following in Roger’s footsteps,” President Dondi Costin said in a statement. “The Nielsens’ pace-setting gift will reap eternal dividends as it enables the Hans A. Nielsen College of Business to recruit, develop and graduate savvy servant leaders who live significant lives — exactly like the family for which the business college is named.”

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