U.Va. receives $5M donation for business ethics professorship

The former president and CEO of Canadian Tire Corp. and his wife have committed $5 million to establish a University of Virginia Darden School of Business professorship focused on business ethics.

U.Va. President Jim Ryan announced the donation by Stephen and Phyllis Bachand to the Darden School Foundation on Dec. 19, 2023. The university will match the gift with $5 million from its Bicentennial Professorship Fund to reach the endowment required for a university professorship.

Stephen Bachand graduated from U.Va.’s Darden School of Business with an MBA in 1963. That year, according to a 1999 article in The Washington Post, he started working at Maryland-based home improvement chain Hechinger as an executive assistant to John Hechinger, who became the company’s president in 1986. After more than 20 years overseeing back-office operations, Bachand was given charge of store operations at Hechinger.

He served as president and CEO of Toronto-based hardware retailer Canadian Tire Corp. from 1993 to 2000, according to Bloomberg. In 1999, the Post credited Bachand with turning around the company, which reported double-digit profit growth in 1998 after five years of declining growth. The company now has more than 1,700 retail locations.

“U.Va.’s Darden School of Business has had a transformative impact on me and my career,” Bachand said in a statement. “To this day, I remain inspired by the school’s mission to develop responsible leaders and foster ethical practice in business. … I see the university professorship as a powerful vehicle to cultivate an enduring legacy of ethical thinking and practice, impacting not just individuals, but generations of business leaders and organizations worldwide.”

U.Va.’s president and provost will appoint the holder of the Stephen E. Bachand University Professorship. University professorships are awarded to distinguished professors whose scholarship exceeds the boundaries of a particular school or is interdisciplinary, according to a U.Va. news release.

“I’m deeply grateful to Stephen and Phyllis Bachand for their generous investment in a university professorship in business ethics,” Ryan said in a statement. “Their gift will help foster vibrant teaching, learning and research in the field, which will help strengthen ethical business practices in organizations beyond [U.Va.’s] Grounds.”

Bachand has previously donated to U.Va. and Darden, making his first gift to Darden in 1972. As of October 2022, the Bachands had given between $1 million and $2.4 million total to the business school, with his primary focus being first-generation students, of which he was one.