-= NMSU PANORAMA - Summer 2006 =- Giving Back: Gordon thanks NMSU with gift of stock

Giving Back

This department contains multiple stories. Please make a selection:
› Foremans give $1.5 million to the College of Engineering
› Technology group makes largest-ever-in-kind contribution
› Scholarship benefits nursing students in Alamogordo
› Gordon thanks NMSU with gift of stock
› Farm Credit supports NMSU
› Taking the campaign to new heights

Gordon thanks NMSU with gift of stock

By Ann Palormo

Brad Gordon earned a degree in marketing from New Mexico State University in 1978, graduating near the top of his class. This was a major accomplishment for someone who had failed in previous attempts to obtain a degree at other Midwestern universities.

A career counselor advised him to attend college in New Mexico where he could start anew, giving him a chance to rebuild his GPA.

Coming from Indiana, Gordon experienced severe culture shock when he first arrived.

“I really felt like a stranger in a strange land,” Gordon says. “I remember how desolate everything was or, as I would later learn, appeared to be.”

Things began to turn around for him when he got to know the community.

“The people, the landscape, the natural beauty, along with the school’s faculty and curriculum, really won me over,” he says.

He finished his degree in two and a half years and the school became his pathway to graduate school. Gordon went on to earn an MBA at the University of Southern California.

In appreciation for what he gained at New Mexico State, Gordon has donated 10,000 shares of Celgene stock, valued at more than $500,000, to the College of Business. The college is establishing an endowment in marketing in the name of Robin Peterson, the professor whom Gordon credits for his academic success.

After finishing school, Gordon worked in venture capital and then turned to launching several companies in tandem with other entrepreneurs. He is vice president of finance and corporate planning for Celgene Corp., a New Jersey-based biopharmaceutical company just named to the Forbes Fast Track 25.

“At New Mexico State, I learned to believe in my abilities and talents, and to put them to use in an impactful way,” he says. “I learned how to succeed.”

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