The last of the EMBA Founders is retiring!

Professor Kirk Smith, the last of the original six creators of our EMBA Program, is retiring after 29 years of service to Boise State. To celebrate this occasion, Kirk has made a gift to establish the EMBA Founders Scholarship to support students enrolled in the Executive MBA program. The scholarship will be awarded at the direction of the EMBA program director and faculty advisor to a current EMBA student(s).  

We know the EMBA program has changed lives, forged friendships, and developed leaders in a way few programs can. 

 We hope you will take a moment to honor Kirk and make a gift to help others have this once-in-a-career opportunity. 

The EMBA Founders Scholarship will honor the five COBE faculty and the one exceptional staff member who joined forces in 2004 to create our EMBA program.  Paul Bahnson (Accountancy), Roy Glen (Management), Nancy Napier (International Business), Kirk Smith (Marketing), and Harry White (Finance) were the faculty.  Cheryl Maille, EMBA’s first Program Director, joined them, bringing a wealth of operational knowledge.  Those six spent two years designing our EMBA program before launching it in August 2006. They started with white space, got input from many sources, and looked beyond their respective disciplines and experiences.  The end result was a unique program that truly prepares individuals for senior leadership positions.

Our EMBA program has helped far more students than just those enrolled in that particular program.  It was a major innovation and provided a foundation from which we created the Career Track, Professional, and Online MBA programs.  EMBA has sponsored teaching seminars for all COBE faculty (MBA or not), facilitated the transfer of in-class materials to other programs, and provided the launch point for areas such as Design Thinking that have become central to several other programs.  Many students, both graduate and undergraduate, have benefited from the EMBA program and it all started with this team of six. 

An endowment of $125,000 would generate enough annual earnings that we can award $5,000/year to an EMBA student each and every year in perpetuity.  An endowment of $100,000 would enable an award of $4,000/year and so on. Your gift helps to create a permanent source of funding for EMBA students that will grow over time and exist for generations.

Please help us salute Kirk and his fellow EMBA Founders by supporting worthy EMBA students through this scholarship.