2008 Woodie Awards
'Fostering' innovation
Benefactors endow Innovation Center with $1.5 million gift
Derek Mitchell
Issue date: 1/24/08 Section: News
The Student Innovation Center received a financial infusion during break - a $1.5 million gift from Bion and Dorian Foster of Hampden.
The Student Innovation Center, which will now be known as "The Bion and Dorian Foster Student Innovation Center," opened in 2006 as a campus resource to help students to transform ideas into products and services.
"It is fitting that this facility will bear the name of Bion and Dorain Foster," UMaine President Robert Kennedy said in a press release. "[The Fosters] are true innovators and entrepreneurs who have succeeded in business and become community leaders because they exemplify the skill, intelligence, work ethic and creativity that we strive to develop in our students," he said.
Bion Foster's support of the Innovation Center was a "natural opportunity," he said, citing his years of service to the university since his graduation and his strong business background. "I've been a self employed business man, and sort of an entrepreneur, all my life." He says he hopes the Innovation Center will foster that same energy in UMaine students. "The Center will help students develop their ideas and see those ideas mature," he said. In the long term, he hopes the Center will provide opportunities for young people in Maine, reducing the 'brain drain' effect as college educated students leave the state in search of better paying jobs.
Bion and Dorain Foster made the gift on behalf of their four daughters and their families. This is not the Fosters' first gift to the University. In recent years, they have provided financial contributions to the athletics department, the Page Farm and Home Museum, the Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrition, the University of Maine Alumni Association and the campaign to build UMaine's Buchanan Alumni House, where a board room is named in their honor.
The Fosters' gift will also provide support for the Student Recreation and Fitness Center, where a second floor multi-purpose room is named for the family, along with scholarship funds through an endowment at the University of Maine Foundation.
The Innovation Center provides students with expert, one-on-one advice and counseling on business development, financing and marketing, as well as office and meeting space for student companies and projects. The Fosters' gift will provide for on-going maintenance of the facility and allow staff to provide more programming and educational opportunities for students.
Bion Foster was Maine's Entrepreneur of the Year in 2001, and has served UMaine as a former member of the President's Development Council, as Chair of the University of Maine Alumni Association Board of Directors and currently serves on the University Board of Visitors.
His community service resume includes leadership roles in the Bangor Regional Development Association, Affiliated Healthcare Services, the John Bapst Memorial High School Foundation and the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce. He currently serves as Hampden's economic development director, a position he has held since 1999.
The Student Innovation Center, which will now be known as "The Bion and Dorian Foster Student Innovation Center," opened in 2006 as a campus resource to help students to transform ideas into products and services.
"It is fitting that this facility will bear the name of Bion and Dorain Foster," UMaine President Robert Kennedy said in a press release. "[The Fosters] are true innovators and entrepreneurs who have succeeded in business and become community leaders because they exemplify the skill, intelligence, work ethic and creativity that we strive to develop in our students," he said.
Bion Foster's support of the Innovation Center was a "natural opportunity," he said, citing his years of service to the university since his graduation and his strong business background. "I've been a self employed business man, and sort of an entrepreneur, all my life." He says he hopes the Innovation Center will foster that same energy in UMaine students. "The Center will help students develop their ideas and see those ideas mature," he said. In the long term, he hopes the Center will provide opportunities for young people in Maine, reducing the 'brain drain' effect as college educated students leave the state in search of better paying jobs.
Bion and Dorain Foster made the gift on behalf of their four daughters and their families. This is not the Fosters' first gift to the University. In recent years, they have provided financial contributions to the athletics department, the Page Farm and Home Museum, the Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrition, the University of Maine Alumni Association and the campaign to build UMaine's Buchanan Alumni House, where a board room is named in their honor.
The Fosters' gift will also provide support for the Student Recreation and Fitness Center, where a second floor multi-purpose room is named for the family, along with scholarship funds through an endowment at the University of Maine Foundation.
The Innovation Center provides students with expert, one-on-one advice and counseling on business development, financing and marketing, as well as office and meeting space for student companies and projects. The Fosters' gift will provide for on-going maintenance of the facility and allow staff to provide more programming and educational opportunities for students.
Bion Foster was Maine's Entrepreneur of the Year in 2001, and has served UMaine as a former member of the President's Development Council, as Chair of the University of Maine Alumni Association Board of Directors and currently serves on the University Board of Visitors.
His community service resume includes leadership roles in the Bangor Regional Development Association, Affiliated Healthcare Services, the John Bapst Memorial High School Foundation and the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce. He currently serves as Hampden's economic development director, a position he has held since 1999.
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