The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents on Thursday honored UWM and Northwestern Mutual with the Regents Business Partnership Award.
The award, which recognizes Northwestern Mutual’s visionary, collaborative leadership and longstanding commitment to UWM and its students, was given during the regents’ meeting at UWM.
Regents President Amy Bogost presented the award to Tim Gerend, who is chairman, president and CEO of Northwestern Mutual.
“Partnerships are at the core of shaping our region into a technology destination,” Gerend said. “UWM provides more of Northwestern Mutual’s full-time employees than any other school – more than 1,300. As a brand-new CEO, I’m proud of our accomplishments and excited about what this partnership holds for the future.”
Northwestern Mutual’s support for UWM began in 1976. The company is one of UWM’s most generous donors, contributing more than $16 million to the Lubar College of Business, Peck School of the Arts and the Roberto Hernández Center, among others.
In 2018, the company partnered with UWM and Marquette University to launch the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute. NMDSI advances academic data science and technology learning while propelling innovation for Northwestern Mutual in key areas, including AI, data bias and ethics, behavioral economics, financial literacy, and health and wealth inequities. Specifically, research projects within NMDSI use data science to address challenging societal issues that have a local and national impact.
Mone highlighted Northwestern Mutual’s support for students, faculty and research.
“I’m thrilled to see what a resounding success the partnership of Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute has been so far, and this would not have happened without the visionary, collaborative leadership of Northwestern Mutual,” Mone said.
