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Planned gift to fund endowed chair in Asian studiesPlanned gift to fund endowed chair in Asian studies

A $2 million bequest from Singapore entrepreneur Chris Fussner will fund an endowed chair in Asian studies at Thunderbird School of Global Management after his death. Fussner, a 1982 Thunderbird graduate, visited campus April 30 to finalize the gift as part of his estate planning.

“Living and working in Asia changed my life, and Thunderbird changed my life,” said Fussner, a New York native who grew up on Long Island. “I wanted to give back in a way that acknowledges these influences.”

Fussner launched Trans-Tec, a high-technology equipment supplier, in 1989 after getting laid off from a job at a small company in Asia. He found himself unemployed and living overseas with a wife and child.

“I got pushed off the plank into entrepreneurship,” he said. “It was either succeed or swim home.”

Sales grew from zero to $80 million in less than 10 years, and today the company is the leading independent supplier of surface-mount technology equipment in Southeast Asia. Global headquarters are in Singapore with additional facilities in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

“Asia is dynamic, friendly and a great place to business,” Fussner said, “especially after your clients become your friends.”

Fussner said his interest in Asian studies grew from a passion he had in his youth for mountain climbing. A fellow climber told him the best mountains were in Nepal, so Fussner left the next year on a global adventure that changed his life.

Prior to that trip, Fussner wanted to be a schoolteacher and was studying U.S. history at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. When he returned home, he shifted his focus to Asian studies.

After graduation, he looked for an opening in economic development in Asia but couldn’t find steady work. He found short-term opportunities in West Africa and then as a refugee officer in Asia.

Finally, his mother asked him when he was going to get a real job. “That’s when I decided to go to Thunderbird,” he says. “I needed to get that experience in international business.”

Fussner met many Thunderbird graduates during his wanderings, and they all told him Thunderbird would be a good fit. “I kept bumping into Thunderbirds, and they kept telling me, ‘You should go to Thunderbird,’” he said. “It was not one person. It was like seven.”

One of the things Fussner has enjoyed most about his success as an entrepreneur is the freedom it gives him as a philanthropist.

Besides giving back to Thunderbird on a regular basis, he donates to George Washington University and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. He also serves on the board of the Vietnam Education Foundation helps finance a mobile medical clinic in Nepal that reaches out to about 40,000 people.

With his $2 million bequest, Fussner joined Thunderbird’s Million-dollar Hat Club, a society of $1 million donors that now includes 10 members and their spouses.

Fussner challenged other alumni to consider gifts to their alma mater during Campaign Thunderbird, a drive to raise $65 million by the end of fiscal 2010-11. Fussner’s pledge raises the total gifts and pledges to more than $52 million with 14 months remaining in the campaign.

“Think about giving back to the school that influenced your life and changed other people’s lives,” he said. “Thunderbird will continue to change students’ lives for the better.”

For more information on Campaign Thunderbird, visit www.thunderbird.edu/campaignthunderbird or call 602-978-7084. To make a gift online, visit www.thunderbird.edu/mygift.