Triad is new benefactor of Johnson School's Park leadership program

A program at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management that builds commitment to community service among MBA students has a new name and the support of a new foundation.

The Triad Foundation Inc., a foundation launched this February, has assumed full responsibility for the Park Leadership Fellows Program at the Johnson School. The program supports 60 exemplary MBA students yearly at the Johnson School through tuition, stipends and enrichment opportunities, in return for their involvement in significant service projects that are of lasting value to the community and their participation in leadership training. It is the only MBA program in the world offering such full support for service and leadership training. The program had previously been supported by the Park Foundation of Ithaca.

As part of the change, the fellowships themselves have been renamed the Roy H. Park Leadership Fellowships, for the late Roy Hampton Park. An entrepreneur, Park launched the Duncan Hines food group in the 1950s and also was the founder and chair of Park Communications, a media company that included newspapers, radio stations and outdoor advertising.

"The new name reflects the desire of the Triad directors to honor the legacy of my father," explained Roy H. Park, Jr., president and chairman of Triad. There will be no change in the management of the fellowship program, said Park. The Triad Foundation was formed to allow the two foundations - Park and Triad - to pursue the philanthropic objectives that best reflect the diverse interests of their respective boards, he said.

Serving as directors and officers of the Triad Foundation are Park Jr. and his children, Roy H. Park III and Elizabeth Park Fowler. The unit of three inspired the name Triad as well as the foundation's logo, a pyramid transected into three parts by the letter "T."

Park Sr., who died in 1993, used Cornell expertise and laboratories to research Americans' eating habits and perfect his company's food products. He served on the advisory councils of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Johnson School and helped create the Lewis H. Durland Memorial Lecture series at the school. Park Jr. is a 1963 graduate of the Johnson School and is a member of its advisory council and a Cornell trustee. He is president and CEO of Park Outdoor Advertising of New York Inc., headquartered in Ithaca.

Triad will also continue Park's support for the Cornell-based Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, specifically for plant research with strong promise for improvements in human health and medicine. "My father became a director of this private research laboratory in 1984, and remained so until he passed away," said Park, Jr., who currently serves as vice chairman of the institute.