Tag: B. Thomas Golisano

Golisano to reveal plans for new business school

Tom Golisano. (File photo/provided)

Paychex founder and philanthropist Tom Golisano on Wednesday will unveil plans to launch his own business school in Brighton.

UPDATE: Golisano launches business school in Brighton 

The Golisano Business COE, Inc., on Friday completed the purchase of a former Paychex property at 150 Sawgrass Dr. in Brighton for $10 million, and the organization has received regulatory approval from the town of Brighton to operate a school.

A media advisory sent out this morning by McDougall Communications said Golisano, the self-made billionaire who grew up in Irondequoit, will be announcing a “major education initiative.”

Jerry Goldman, partner in the real estate & finance department at Woods Oviatt Gilman, has made presentations before the Brighton Planning Board regarding Goliano’s desire to open a business school.

The school would not offer a degree but rather a certificate of education for the two-year program. Up to 250 students would attend each year, with 40 to 60 staff, according to planning board minutes.

Preliminary plans call for a curriculum focusing on business, finance, human resources, entrepreneurship, sales and marketing, operations and business analytics, with courses primarily in the morning, according to information Goldman provided to the planning board.

“It will be a very intensive program,” meeting minutes quote Goldman as telling the planning board. “And the cost to attend will be significantly less expensive than any traditional four-year program.”

Since the building is 125,000 square feet, the group has no plans to expand, Goldman said. There also wouldn’t be changes made to the exterior.

Golisano ranked 181st on the 2022 Forbes 400, and the publication says his net worth today is $5.3 billion. He has donated more than $300 million through the Golisano Foundation and continues to support a multitude of charitable endeavors.

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Golisano to be honored at RIT

Philanthropist B. Thomas Golisano will be honored at Rochester Institute of Technology Friday, Oct. 20, as the university acknowledges his contributions, especially those for people with developmental disabilities.

The event Friday afternoon will take place at an exhibit on the Golisano Archives – housed at RIT – that will open to the public the following day.   Timothy P. Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics International, will speak at the event about an initiative to which Golisano has contributed $37 million: the Special Olympics’ Healthy Communities initiative.

“As a tireless advocate for the Special Olympics movement,” Shriver said, “Tom and the Golisano Foundation enable and empower communities of care, where the contributions of people with intellectual disabilities are better understood, encouraged and valued by all.”  The Healthy Communities initiative seeks to reduce health disparities that people with intellectual disabilities often face related to access to health services.

The archive exhibit will be displayed in the atrium of Golisano Hall, home to the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences.

Golisano is founder and chairman of Paychex Inc., a payroll, human resources and benefits provider for more than 500,000 companies nationwide.