Jim Friedberg ProConnect Opportunity Fund

Pictured is Jim Friedberg receiving the Jindal School “Selfless Heart” Owlie Award in 2015 from Dean Hasan Pirkul. He fully exemplifies the meaning of the Owlie – Outstanding, Worthy Leaders, Involved Exceptionally.

Jim Friedberg has been a friend to the Jindal School. The Jindal School students, staff and faculty that worked with him loved him and learned so much from him. He is a big part of the Jindal School family. The Jim Friedberg ProConnect Opportunity Fund strives to honor the man who has given so much to the Jindal School. The ProConnect initiative, just like Jim Friedberg himself, strives to give back to the community. By offering pro-bono projects that benefit the community, ProConnect helps the community and also students working on these projects to strengthen their communication skills and professionalism, an area where Mr. Friedberg provided so much support to the Jindal School.

His relationship with the university started with ties to Dean Hasan Pirkul, when he reached out to the Dean to share his interest in being a resource. Mr. Friedberg was enthusiastically wanting to plug into places where he could share his vast experience in networking and communications, which he honed as an executive with NCH. At NCH, he was the go-to person for teaching networking skills, building rapport and communicating with impact. He was instrumental in training all the sales force of his organization with amazing impact to NCH’s bottom line. He started working with areas of the university to offer his insights to assist students. One of the areas he first started working with was the MS of Accounting program, helping out with various presentations on soft skills, building rapport, networking, and interview skills. He had a particular ability to encourage international students. He worked closely with Ascend (Pan-Asian Leaders in Business) in many events and helped to train the new generations of leaders of Ascend through a 3-part leadership program that required students to network and meet new people, mentor each other and even spend some of the time going to Starbucks to meet new people and for international students, to help them practice their English. The “Starbuck Challenge” has become famous in the Jindal School – this can be attributed to Jim Friedberg.

In 2015, when we first started the Owlie Awards, Jim Friedberg was awarded an Owlie award for his dedication to the students of the Jindal School. He has also worked with the Career Management Center and many other professors and groups on campus.

We appreciate your support of the Jindal School and the Jim Friedberg ProConnect Opportunity Fund, an endowment that will provide support to the ProConnect initiative. Through this fund we hope to carry on the memory of Jim Friedberg by continuing to pay it forward and give to others, just as Mr. Friedberg did.

Make a Gift

Use this form to securely make your online donation. Fields marked with an * are required. UT Dallas faculty and staff can make gifts online or via payroll deduction.

Donation Information

Amount:

$

*

Designation:

Other

*

Additional Information

Type of gift:

One-time gift

Recurring gift

Pledge (installments)

Corporate:

This donation is on behalf of a company

Anonymous:

I prefer to make this donation anonymously

Comments:

Planned Giving:

Send info about donor advised funds, stocks, wills, etc.

Billing Information

Title:

First name:

*

Last name:

*

Country:

*

Address lines:

*

City:

*

State:

*

ZIP:

*

Phone:

Email:

*

Payment Information

Cardholder's Name:

*

Credit Card Number:

*

Card Type:

*

Card Expiration:

/

*

Card Security Code:

*

Matching Gifts

My company will match my gift

Click here to see if your company matches gifts.

*If UT Dallas is unable to raise at least $10,000, all gifts will be used to provide immediate support to the ProConnect initiative.