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News & Updates
Pursuing entrepreneurial dreams
Some people are born to rise on the corporate ladder and be successful in organizations. Some are born to do it on their own. Robert “Bob” Turner '77 chose to do it on his own, and now he and his wife are helping a new generation to do the same through Bradley’s Robert and Carolyn Turner Center for Entrepreneurship.
Established in 2000 through a $1.5 million gift from Bob and Carolyn Turner, the Turner Center for Entrepreneurship provides business counseling, technical assistance, training and educational activities for individuals interested in owning their own businesses. The Turner Center Lecture Series brings prominent entrepreneurs, authors and academics to Bradley to interact with members of the university and local community, and students learn first hand what it takes to follow their dreams and succeed on their own.
Recently the Turners provided another major gift as part of the Campaign for a Bradley Renaissance. This gift is unrestricted in the amount of $3 million. The University has recognized their generosity by creating the Turner Chair of Entrepreneurship.
“Carolyn and I are very happy to repay Bradley in some small way through the establishment of the Turner Center for Entrepreneurship,” Bob Turner said. “It’s our hope the Center will allow Bradley not only to gain regional prominence, but national prominence as well. The additional gift and the new chair of entrepreneurship adds to the depth and breadth to the program and the entrepreneurial activities at Bradley.”
Bob Turner graduated from Bradley in 1977 with a degree in accounting and received his MBA from the university a year later. His career began in the banking and insurance industries, but eventually he chose a different path – the path of an entrepreneur. Bob and his brother started their own investment business in 1990.
Today, as chairman and chief investment officer of Turner Investment Partners Inc., Bob and the Turner team manage more than $15 billion in assets.
Throughout his daily endeavors, Bob employs the values of hard work, provides others with opportunities, practices the skills of calculating risk and motivates employees to participate in the company’s growth. These are the values an education at Bradley’s Foster College of Business Administration and the Turner Center for Entrepreneurship provide the newest generation of professionals.
Along with being a respected businessman, Bob is a dedicated husband and father of four, and he makes spending time with his family a top priority. His son, Andrew, a history and communications major at Bradley, will graduate in 2011. Bob Turner is a recipient of the Beta Gamma Sigma Business Achievement Award and has served as a member of Bradley’s Board of Trustees for more than a decade.
As Bob would say, the ideal entrepreneur is someone who has a passion for what he or she does and who has the desire to live out that passion through those endeavors. The Turner Center for Entrepreneurship embodies what Bob loves about being in business, the realities and excitement of being at the helm of one’s own destiny.