The building that will house University of South Florida St. Petersburg's College of Business will bear the name of a woman who worked her way up in a Tampa Bay corporation from payroll clerk to Chief Financial Officer.
The school will continue to be known as the USF St. Pete Kate Tiedemann College of Business, thanks to the Bay Area entrepreneur's $10 million gift in 2014.
The building itself, however, will be named "Lynn Pippenger Hall," after the former Raymond James executive gave the university $5 million. It's the second largest gift in USFSP history behind Tiedemann's donation.
If that name seems familiar, it's because the USF School of Accountancy in Tampa took Pippenger's moniker after she donated ten million dollars to her alma mater last year. Pippenger attended classes at both campuses.
"Both the College of Business and the Schools of Accountancies in both colleges are accredited separately, and I think that's a fantastic thing, and this is a beautiful campus - I mean, it's a hidden jewel," Pippenger said.
Pippenger added that she still can't believe her name will be on a building just three blocks from the St. Petersburg hospital where she was born.
"That one hasn't sunk in yet," she said with a laugh. "It'll be neat to have it on a building - it's more visible than the School of Accountancy maybe. But it's on their diploma at the School of Accountancy - they won't graduate from a hall."
The new Pippenger building is scheduled to open this fall.
When it does, the college will have a new leader. Sridhar Sundaram was named dean in mid-March after a nationwide search. Sundaram joins the college from Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, MI, where he was Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and Centers. He'll take over July 1 for Gary Patterson, who has served as interim dean since June 2014.
The announcements come as USF St. Pete wraps up its yearlong 50th anniversary celebration with a fundraising gala set for April 13th and a Tiedemann College-sponsored free event featuring Ann Dunwoody, the U.S. Army's first female four star general, April 19th.
