$5M gift creates first named deanship at CU Boulder’s business school

BOULDER – Entrepreneur Tandean Rustandy, a University of Colorado Boulder alumnus and donor, has given $5 million to create the Tandean Rustandy Endowed Deanship at the Leeds School of Business, the first named deanship on campus.

“This gift will play such a significant role in the continued success of Leeds and CU Boulder,” said Chancellor Philip DiStefano in a prepared statement. “I’m grateful to Tandean for his ongoing support of Leeds and our university, and I look forward to seeing how our next dean, supported by this gift, will transform the future of global business.”

Last May, CU Boulder Provost Russell Moore appointed Yonca Ertimur to be the acting dean of the Leeds School of Business after former Dean Sharon Matusik transitioned to become the Edward J. Frey Dean of Business at the University of Michigan. A search for a permanent dean is ongoing, and the search is expected to conclude this spring. 

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In addition to helping recruit a leader through the prestige of a named position, the Rustandy Endowed Deanship provides additional resources for the next dean to create and execute a vision that continues the school’s growth trajectory. That dean will have complete discretion over the use of these funds, in alignment with one of Rustandy’s personal mottos, “Simplicity is best.”

“I believe CU and the Leeds School have the potential to compete against the most elite business schools in the world,” Rustandy said. “As an alumnus, it is a great honor to support and work with the university on such an extensive scale. I am excited to see the impact this commitment has on the search for the next leader, and I am eager to see what it means for the school’s future.”

Rustandy founded and serves as CEO of PT Arwana Citramulia Tbk (IDX: ARWA), a ceramic-tile manufacturing company based in Indonesia.

Rustandy’s largest gift to CU Boulder, $10 million, created the campus’s newest academic building. By connecting the Leeds business school and CU’s College of Engineering and Applied Science complex, the $45 million Rustandy Building physically connects two disciplines, engineering and business, that are increasingly overlapping in the real world as well as academia, and has ushered in important collaborations between students and faculty preparing for an interdisciplinary future.

Ground was broken for the building in 2019, and it opened in 2020.