Owens-Illinois thanked for sponsoring COBI O-I Corporate Finance Scholars Tutoring program & new Engineering Conference Room

The University of Toledo dedicated on January 10 the new Owens-Illinois Conference Room in the College of Engineering to celebrate the new meeting space made possible by a gift from the glass manufacturing company to support the University’s engineering and business programs.

Left to right, Dr. Marc Simpson, Chair of the COBI Department of Finance; COBI Interim Dean Hassan HassabElnaby; Ludovic Valette, global vice president of research and development at Owens-Illinois Inc.;Adam Hafer, manager of the Innovation Center, Global Technologies EH&S, and Perrysburg Properties at Owens-Illinois; and Andrew T. Hsu, Ph.D., Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, The University of Toledo.  

The new Owens-Illinois Finance Tutoring Lab opened last year in Stranahan Hall.

“O-I has been a tremendous friend to the College of Business and Innovation in many ways, such as through their support of our annual student Pacemaker awards and by providing the first place prize for the COBI Business Plan Competition,” said Dr. Hassan HassabElnaby, interim dean of the College of Business and Innovation. “We were pleased and honored to welcome the O-I executive team so that they could see and touch some of these things and so that we could thank them in person.”

The conference room is located in 4020 Nitschke Hall and is part of the Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department. The new conference room is supported by a $250,000 commitment O-I made in 2015 to support the College of Engineering and the College of Business and Innovation.

In addition to the facilities improvements, the gift from O-I provides financial support for key initiatives including the Engineering Innovation Fund, O-I National Society of Black Engineers Scholarship Fund and O-I Society for Women Engineers Scholarship Fund in the College of Engineering and the O-I Corporate Finance Scholars Tutoring program in the College of Business and Innovation.

“The support of our corporate partners makes it possible for the College of Engineering to provide a first-rate experience to our students,” said Dr. Mike Toole, dean of the College of Engineering. “O-I has been a long-term partner with the College of Engineering, and their leadership support has impacted many of our students throughout the years.”