William Russell Kelly, founder and chair of Kelly Services Inc., will endow a professorship at the School of Business Administration to support teaching and research in human resources management.
The professorship was one of 40 leadership gifts totaling $295 million announced Sept. 18 at the kickoff of The Campaign for Michigan.
“We are pleased to accept this generous gift from Mr. Kelly,” said Business School Dean B. Joseph White. “Our organizational behavior and human resource management faculty and programs are the best in the country. This endowment will strengthen our capability in this vital management area.”
Kelly said, “I am very pleased to support, through the creation of this professorship, the education of future business leaders in the vital area of human resource management.
“Successful businesses require capable people and managers who involve them, develop them, and treat them with respect and dignity. These are the values that have guided us at Kelly Services. I am confident that the professorship at the Michigan Business School will benefit generations of business enterprises and people by fostering more thoughtful and effective human resource management.”
Founded in Detroit in 1946, Kelly Services is the nation’s largest staffing support company. Kelly Services president and chief executive officer, Terence E. Adderley, received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the School of Business Administration. He is a member of the Visiting Committee for the School.
