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V. "Paddy" Padmanabhan, Ph.D., was installed as the first John K. Wallace Jr. and Ellen A. Wallace Distinguished Professor of Marketing at the John M. Olin School of Business in an April 12 ceremony in Simon Hall. The professorship was made possible by a recent commitment of $2 million from the Wallaces.
"John and Ellen Wallace are among the University's most generous and supportive friends," said Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton, announcing the commitment. "Establishing a distinguished professorship is one of the many meaningful ways in which they've shown their long-standing devotion to the University and the Olin School."
Stuart I. Greenbaum, dean of the business school, also expressed his gratitude for the new professorship. "I'm delighted that the Wallaces' generosity allows us to honor outstanding faculty such as Paddy Padmanabhan," Greenbaum said. "Such gifts help the Olin School attract and retain world-class faculty and contribute to its rise as one of the nation's premier business schools."
Padmanabhan was on the faculty of Stanford University, Northwestern University and the European international business school INSEAD in France before joining the faculty here as professor of marketing in 1998. He teaches customer-focused marketing management, services marketing, advanced services marketing and contemporary marketing channels and pursues research interests in those areas. He has been published in many scholarly journals, including Marketing Science and Management Science.
Padmanabhan earned a doctoral degree and master of science degree from the University of Texas at Dallas. He received a bachelor of technology degree from the Institute of Technology, Benares Hindu University in Varasani, India.
John K. Wallace Jr., chairman of The Regency Group, a holding company based in Clayton, Mo., and a member of the University's Board of Trustees, has been a distinguished leader in the St. Louis business community for 30 years. After receiving a master of business administration degree from the University's school of business in 1962, he rose to the position of executive vice president and president of charcoal subsidiaries at Cupples Co. Manufacturers in St. Louis. In 1981, he purchased a subsidiary he led and renamed it Imperial Products. When he sold the firm in 1989, it was the largest industrial and third-largest recreational charcoal operation in the United States. Recently, Wallace became a co-owner of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Now semi-retired, he serves on the business school's National Council and chairs the school's efforts for the Campaign for Washington University.
He is a past chairman of the William Greenleaf Eliot Society and a past president of the business school's alumni association. A recipient of the school's Distinguished Alumni Award for success in his career, Wallace also has received awards for his service to the University as a whole. He is active in many civic and cultural institutions, among them the Missouri Botanical Garden, the St. Louis Zoo and the Municipal Theatre Association of St. Louis.
Ellen Wallace, his wife, also has enjoyed success in business. In 1990 she became a founding partner of Farmhouse Collection Inc., a manufacturer offering unique, high-end handcrafted furniture to the designer trade industry. Together with her partners, Wallace developed the firm into the nationally recognized company it is today, supported by 17 regional showrooms.
Before entering the furniture business, Ellen Wallace volunteered extensively in St. Louis for organizations dedicated to helping disadvantaged and at-risk youth. For 10 years she served as a Citizen's Deputy Juvenile Officer with the St. Louis County Family Court system and was a member of the board of directors of the Providence Program. Currently, she serves on the boards of the Center for Contemporary Art (COCA) and PayBack Inc.
The Wallaces' commitment is part of the Campaign for Washington University, a major initiative which aims to continue to build on the University's record of excellence and to bring greater benefit to the St. Louis region. The campaign, to end June 30, 2004, has secured gifts and commitments totaling $846.1 million to date.
