At $21.4 million, asset value climbed almost $1 million alone in the six months between December 31, 2006 and June 30, 2007.
Expressed in percentage terms, HSUAF’s endowment assets grew at a double digit rate of 13.76% in annualized total returns (net of investment fees) between December 31, 2005 and December 31, 2006. Non-endowed assets shot up 15.78%.
Since inception on April 1, 2005, the annualized total return on endowment assets has been 12.88%, and 12.73% on non-endowed assets.
Rob Gunsalus, HSU Vice President of Advancement and Executive Director of the Advancement Foundation, attributed the short-term and long-term gains to “generous benefactors, strong investment performance and HSU President Richmond’s and the Board’s leadership in creating the Foundation so that investment assets are now actively managed.”
Gwynna Morris, Vice President for Beacom Construction, is the new HSUAF chair, succeeding Mike Fielding, the founding chair, who had served since 2004 and is a retired senior partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers. President Richmond said, “HSU is indebted to Mike Fielding for his leadership and devoted work to the Advancement Foundation, which will contribute to the University’s future for many years to come. And Gwynna Morris is ideally suited by her experience to assume the leadership mantle of the Board of Trustees.”
The Advancement Foundation Board of Trustees recently inducted four new members. Jim Brown, a 1965 Forestry alum, recently retired as President of the Green Diamond Resource Company (previously known as Simpson Resource Company). He earned his master’s degree in Civil Engineering from San Jose State University in 1972 and taught Forest Engineering at HSU from 1974-1976.
His community involvement has included the Eureka Chamber of Commerce, Arcata Rotary Club and the Larry McCarty Foundation for Kids. He is past President of the Redwood Region Logging Conference and the California Redwood Association. Mr. Brown received the HSU Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001 and is a member of the HSU Alumni Association. A donor to the University, he is a former member of the HSU President’s Advisory Board.
James Joseph, a 1956 Fisheries alum, recently retired from the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission where he served for 25-plus years. The multimillion dollar, international multi-government agency was established in 1980 with a broad scope of responsibilities for the investigation and conservation of tuna resources and other species taken by tuna-fishing vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Mr. Joseph was the first-ever recipient of a master’s degree in Fisheries from HSU in 1958 and went on to earn his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1967. Additionally, he received an honorary doctorate from the French Ministry of Education.
A donor to the University, Mr. Joseph established the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission Endowment in 1994 and received HSU’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1986. He is a lifetime member of the HSU Alumni Association.
George Schmidbauer, a prominent area lumberman, is President and CEO of Schmidbauer Lumber, Incorporated, which operates eight lumber mills across the United States. A 1953 graduate of CSU-Chico, Mr. Schmidbauer is a donor to the University. Like Mr. Brown, he is a past member of the HSU President’s Advisory Board.
A 1971 Journalism alum, Mike Stockstill, is President of Stockstill Communications, a public affairs consulting firm that serves a multitude of clients throughout Southern California. For several years, he was also a senior partner with the Irvine Company, a large investment and real estate firm known worldwide for its sustainable approach to development. While a senior at Humboldt State, Mr. Stockstill was an Assembly Intern (now known as an Assembly Fellow) in the office of then-Assemblyman John L. Burton.
Mr. Stockstill has been active in the Coro Foundation, which prepares individuals for effective and ethical leadership in the public affairs arena, as well as the United Way of San Gabriel Valley and the Orange County Public Affairs Association. He, too, is a donor to the University and established the Stockstill Scholarship Endowment.
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