Herberts have generously invested in UM’s business school. The community will reap the dividends | Opinion

We are celebrating the new name of the University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert Business School, honoring two business school alumni who generously have given the university more than $100 million over the years.

They have invested in a university with a strong upward trajectory, and they are investing in a business school with a ferocious tailwind of momentum, a school with an entrepreneurial spirit that is committed to producing savvy, gritty, job-ready graduates ready to tackle the complex problems facing the world.

More than 200 business executives, over half from the tricounty area of Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe, who are experts in real estate, accounting, healthcare, marketing and finance, serve on various advisory boards at the business school. We have 63 partners in our corporate associates program investing more than $1 million each year in our school’s future.

This fall, the Miami Herbert Business School launched a first-in-the-country STEM-certified Master of Science in Sustainable Business degree program in collaboration with the university’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and the School of Architecture and College of Engineering. Twenty-four students from 11 countries will graduate next year grounded in both science and business, ready to take on the challenges of our changing climate.

The Herberts’ most recent gift of $89 million will be invested directly in the business school. It will establish a cluster of centers of excellence around innovation and entrepreneurship, leadership and governance, global operations and strategy, and business analytics and technology, among others. Through fellowships and scholarships, the gift will help to attract and retain talented faculty and the best and brightest undergraduate and graduate students.

We will also enhance our position as the leading business school in the hemisphere, but also as a school with a global vision that can capitalize on and contribute to expanding Florida’s trillion-dollar economy, and that is nothing to shy away from. Our goal is to be among the top 25 business schools by 2025.

And while wonderful benefactors such as the Herberts and our corporate partners are investing in the business school, it’s important not to forget that we must all invest in the human capital we are preparing for the future, whether they are graduates from the Miami Herbert Business School or our sister business schools at Florida International University, Miami Dade College, Nova Southeastern University, Barry University, Florida Memorial University, St. Thomas University or Florida Atlantic University.

At Miami Herbert, we are a magnet for talent. About 25 percent of our students are from Florida, but 75 percent of our students want to stay in Florida. They made a conscious choice to move to Miami to learn and grow, and now they want to remain, which is the quintessential Florida story. Few of us are natives, but all of us know what draws us here, from the diversity of cultures to the arts to business opportunities to the spectacular beaches and climate.

Allan Herbert’s family moved to Florida from Brooklyn when he was a boy. Patti Herbert was raised in Plainfield, New Jersey. They met at the business school, fell in love there and continued a lifelong connection to the university and our community.

Our business community is fortunate to have a pool of young talent graduating each year, diverse and eclectic women and men who bring new ideas and abilities that can help shape our companies and prepare them for the future. They are a workforce that is part of our fabric; a workforce hungry for success that also wants to give back.

So when they knock on your door, take a moment and check their resume. Are they one of ours, a graduate from Miami Herbert Business School or another of the fine business schools in South Florida?

If yes, invite them in. See if they are someone you want to invest in.

John A. Quelch is dean of the University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert Business School.