Inc. 500 CEO Donates $1 Million to Alma Mater

 

April 24, 2007 -- The founder of an Inc. 500 software firm has donated $1 million to the entrepreneurship program at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, school officials announced Tuesday.

Russ Hobbs, the founder of Tampa, Fla.-based Blue Ocean Software, who attended Wake Forest, said he created the fund in honor of his parents. The money will go toward grants and internships for undergraduate students involved with socially beneficial organizations, school officials said. It will also fund major prizes awarded to the most entrepreneurial ventures at Wake Forest every year.

"This important gift will increase the entrepreneurship program's momentum and credibility and provide permanent support for the future," Elizabeth Gatewood, director of the school's Office for Entrepreneurship and the Liberal Arts, said in a statement.

Blue Ocean Software ranked No. 85 on the 2002 Inc. 500 list of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. It was bought by Intuit later that year for $177 million.

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