Lemann Foundation in Brazil makes gift to USC Marshall funding endowed chair and social entrepreneurship scholarships

The Lemann Foundation of Brazil has made a gift to the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business in support of entrepreneurship research and student scholarships.“The Lemann Foundation recognizes the importance of educational opportunities as well as the value of entrepreneurship,” said James G. Ellis, dean of USC Marshall. “This generous gift at once supports both.”

The gift supports up to six scholarships for Brazilian students enrolled in the Master of Science in Social Entrepreneurship degree (MSSE), as well as the Lemann Chair in Entrepreneurship.

“By supporting student scholarships, the Lemann Foundation is making a real difference,” said Adlai Wertman, David C. Bohnett Professor of Social Entrepreneurship and the academic director of the MSSE program. “These students will return to Brazil with the tools to create sustainable enterprises.”

“We believe this new partnership with USC will help young social entrepreneurs to promote change in our country”, said Denis Mizne, Lemann Foundation’s CEO.

The Lemann Foundation, a non-profit family organization founded in 2002 by Jorge Paulo Lemann, works to ensure that all Brazilian children have quality public education and to create a network of talented people dedicated to solving the main social problems in the country. To achieve this goal, the Lemann Foundation develops programs that impact millions of public school students throughout Brazil and supports institutions of excellence that work for a fairer and more developed country. It has also partnered with Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale, UCLA, UIUC and the University of Oxford.