‘I’M IN’ campaign attracts substantial gifts
Since it was launched in April 2016, I’M IN – The Endowment Campaign for Coastal Carolina University has attracted significant support, including two substantial gifts.
The Richard Pilosof Financial Services Laboratory
has been established in the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration. The lab was made possible through a $250,000 gift from Richard Pilosof, a 1983 CCU finance graduate, and his family in support of the I’M IN campaign.
The funds will be used to provide financial tools that students majoring in finance and other disciplines in the Wall College of Business require to master their degree area. These tools include hardware and software such as Morningstar Direct, Thomson Reuters, S&P Capital, Palisade, the Center for Research in Security Prices, and CCU’s Gerald Boyles Student Investment Fund, which gives students the opportunity to implement their financial knowledge of various financial markets by using real money to make real investments.
Located on the first floor of the Wall Building, the state-of-the-art lab is equipped with world-class investment management software, 27 student terminals with dual monitors, two large-screen televisions that provide access to financial news channels, and a 15-foot ticker display with scrolling financial information.
Pilosof is a managing partner and CEO of RP Investment Advisors. In 1987, at age 27, he became the youngest managing director for the Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets. He was credited with significantly increasing RBC’s percentage of revenues earned from operations outside of Canada. Pilosof was one of five Top Tier Chanticleers featured in the cover story of a previous issue of the Coastal Carolina University Magazine.
Brittain Family Scholars Program
The Brittain family of Myrtle Beach has established the Brittain Family Scholars Program with a $500,000 gift to Coastal Carolina University. The endowed program, created to benefit high-achieving Horry County high school graduates, will offer one of the most academically and financially competitive scholarships available at CCU.
“Coastal Carolina University has meant a lot to the Brittain Family, especially to my late father-in-law and my mother-in-law, Clay and Patricia Brittain,” said Ann Brittain LeMay, who manages the Brittain Resorts & Hotels with Matthew Brittain, the brother of her late husband, David Brittain. “Clay was a visionary who realized the importance of higher education for everybody.”
The Brittain Family Scholars Program will award up to two $10,000 scholarships each academic year. To be eligible for the scholarship, Horry County students must have earned a high school GPA of at least 3.75 and have an SAT score of at least 1,400 or an ACT score of least 32. Recipients must also be actively involved in the community.
Clay D. Brittain Jr. was a pioneer in the Myrtle Beach area’s tourism industry. He was chairman of the board emeritus of the Myrtle Beach National Company and was involved in many leading business enterprises in the Grand Strand area, including the Sea Captain’s House and the Chesterfield Inn. Brittain was active in the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday. He died in February 2016.
Brittain was named an honorary founder of the University in 1995. He was a member of the Coastal Educational Foundation from 1976 to 2016, and served a term as president. Brittain was instrumental in the establishment of the University’s PGA golf management program. In 2001, the Clay Brittain Jr. Center for Resort Tourism was established. A campus academic and office building was named in his honor in 2013.
I’M IN
The Endowment Campaign for Coastal Carolina University was launched in April to increase CCU’s endowment by $20 million by 2020, which would add approximately $800,000 in new funds annually to support additional student scholarships and academic excellence.