Fairfield County Business Journal 09112017

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2 | COMMUNITY RADIO September 11, 2017 | VOL. 53, No. 37

7 | FINANCE FINDER

YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS

westfaironline.com

New president, old values on a changing campus BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfariinc.com

F it was awarding grants of $35,000 to 15 of it s or i g i na l nonprof it recipients, including Westpor t ’s CLASP Homes, Homes with Hope, the Westport Historical Society, Westport Libraryand Westport Volunteer EMS; Norwalk’s Maritime Aquarium, Carver Foundation and Norwalk Hospital; and Fairfield’s Save the Children. Since Newman’s death in 2008, more than $239.3 million has been given to charity, representing 48 percent of the foundation’s total donations, compared with $260.5 million given away in the previous 26 years. The fund’s compounded annual growth rate over the past nine years is 5 percent. Impressive — or, as one of Newman’s Own’s pasta sauces would have it, “sockarooni” — numbers, which Newman himself would have been bowled over by, according to Newman’s Own President and CEO Robert H. Forrester. Speaking from the company’s headquarters at 1 Morningside Drive North in

airfield University is a campus busy with change — and Mark R. Nemec is busy newly leading it. Having recently extended Fairfield Rising, the largest capital fundraising campaign in the school’s history, through 2018 with a target of $210 million and in the midst of a plethora of new construction and renovation projects, the Jesuit university started this academic year with a new president. Nemec is the ninth person to hold that job and, notably to some, the first non-Jesuit priest to be named to the post in the private university’s 75-year history. Allowing that no interview can go without mentioning that singular distinction of his, Nemec told the Business Journal during a recent visit that any trepidations about having a layman in charge of the school are ill-founded. Having graduated from Loyola High School of Los Angeles, a Jesuit preparatory school, Nemec identifies himself as an Ignatian — after St. Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Jesuit religious society for men in the 16th century. All of Fairfield’s presidents have been Ignatians. “Our core values will remain the same,” he said. “All this means is that those values may be interpreted from a slightly different perspective.” “I see myself as a steward of those core values. Fairfield University has always maintained that education is not an end in and of itself. Giving students an education as individuals, teaching them how to think on their own and work with teams in a mutually beneficial way, is of utmost importance,” he said. Speaking on a terrace outside the his office — “I like to get away from my desk whenever I can” — Nemec said the challeng-

» NEWMAN'S, page 6

» FAIRFIELD, page 6

Author A.E. Hotchner, left, and actor Paul Newman launched Newman’s Own in 1982 with a single salad-dressing product.

Newman's Own keeps the giving fresh at 35 BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com

“I

don't think there's anything exceptional or noble in being philanthropic. It's the other attitude that confuses me.” So said Paul Newman in a 2002 interview with “Film Monthly”, responding to a question about Newman’s Own. Based in Westport, the food company, which Newman started with longtime friend and author A.E Hotchner, is observing its 35th anniversary this year. It remains a testament to the work that the legendary star of “Cool Hand Luke,” “The Sting” and count-

less other movies did offscreen. Beginning with a simple olive oil-andvinegar salad dressing — its first 500 cases shipped to Stew Leonard’s in Norwalk on Aug. 25, 1982 — Newman’s Own today offers over 300 products for sale, with 100 percent of its profits going to charities around the world. To date, more than $495 million has been donated to charitable organizations, with the Newman’s Own Foundation, created in 2005, now supporting about 600 grantees each year. “The embarrassing thing is that my salad dressing is outgrossing my films,” Newman once quipped. In recognition of the food company’s anniversary, the Newman’s Own Foundation last month announced


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