A Charleston, W.Va., area couple has donated $100,000 to the College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University for scholarships in the school’s new Supply Chain Management program, which will be open to students in the fall of 2014.

The Pat and Jessica Graney Scholarship will provide funds to undergraduate students enrolled in the new program.

The Graney scholarship was actually prompted by a visit from B& E Milan Puskar Dean Jose “Zito” Sartarelli following a major gift last year from their friends, the Wehrle family. H. Bernard “Bernie” Wehrle, III and his wife, Cecilia, gave $750,000 for the creation of a Supply Chain Non-endowed Professorship, thus, launching the new program. An additional $250,000 was donated by the H.B. Wehrle Foundation to support the professorship at B&E.

“We thought it would be timely and appropriate to support the efforts of the Wehrle family’s investment in helping to create a supply chain management program at B&E,” said Pat Graney. He said the scholarships can be needs- or merit-based, but that the scholarships are designed to attract the best students for the new program.

“We want the program at the business school to be world class,” Graney said. “It was important to Jessica and me to establish this scholarship to recognize the great work at the WVU College of Business and Economics as the school grows and prospers and achieves significant national rankings. The timing was perfect since we have spent our business life in supply chain activities by building a successful petroleum distributorship in West Virginia, which continues to operate today.”

Support for a supply chain program was initiated by Sartarelli, who has assembled an advisory board for the program.

“The scholarships created through this generous gift by Pat and Jessica Graney will enable us to attract the best students for the supply chain program,” Sartarelli said. “With increased globalization, this is a world that is extremely interconnected. Supply chain management has become a key enabler to that interconnected world, and this is a great opportunity for B&E to add supply chain management to its areas of expertise.”

The endowment was created through the WVU Foundation in conjunction with A State of Minds: The Campaign for West Virginia’s University. The campaign is a $750 million fundraising effort being conducted by the Foundation on behalf of the University.

For further information on the WVU College of Business and Economics, please visit be.wvu.edu.

-WVU-

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CONTACT: Patrick Gregg, WVU College of Business and Economics
304.293.5131, Patrick.Gregg@mail.wvu.edu

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