Meet Our Donors
Bill '80 MBA and Linda Barlow
Recognizing the Place Where It All Began
Pursuing a business degree at Drexel was the start of something big for G. William (Bill) Barlow —80 MBA. Now, he and his wife Linda are empowering more students to do the same.
By the time G. William (Bill) Barlow —80 MBA enrolled at Drexel University, first to pursue a master's in public health before switching to a master's in business administration, he had already gained a wealth of life experience. Bill was a law school student before he was drafted in <
But, if you ask Bill, despite all the valuable insights he gained along the way, the real learning took place within Drexel's business school.
"My MBA experience was very hands on," he says. "A number of my professors were businessmen and women, and they had a very practical approach—it was standard. They taught a real-life approach to problem solving which I later found to be a model that was applicable in business, and in life."
For Bill, who went on to hold leadership roles at financial institutions like Main Line Federal Savings Bank, Zions First National Banking, and TruMark Financial Credit Union, the connections he built as a Drexel alumnus were just as influential as the education itself.
"One of the main ingredients to my success was that once I got my MBA and I took that next step, from that point on, my education at Drexel was recognized and valued," says Bill.
"While I never completed a co-op as a graduate student, I persuaded my companies to take on a Drexel student and we ended up hiring him," he adds. "It's really a testament to the value Drexel places on experiential learning."
Those key tenants of a strong education are what inspired Bill and his wife, Linda, to create greater access to a Drexel education through the G. William and Linda F. Barlow Endowed Scholarship Fund. The fund, established in 2017 through a bequest pledge and subsequent charitable gift annuity, provides scholarship awards for undergraduate students in the Bennett S. LeBow College of Business with demonstrated financial need who have achieved and maintained good academic standing.
"As a career educator, I am a strong believer in the power of an education," says Linda. "We really felt it was important to encourage people, if they if they so choose, to pursue even greater opportunity through an education."
"My hope is that this will be something that enables a person to reach their full potential and to hopefully have a long, meaningful career in their own niche of business," says Bill.
"We just want to provide that little bit of extra help, knowing that there are other people like us doing the same thing, that can add up to assist as many students as possible to receive the same value I did."