Lavin family endows new faculty chair

7/29/2010 - A generous contribution by the Bernice and Leonard H. Lavin family has led to the creation of a new chaired professorship, the school’s first since 2007.

The chair will be held by Kent Grayson, who joined the Marketing Department in 2002. Grayson — who will hold the title of Bernice and Leonard H. Lavin Professor — teaches Kellogg’s core marketing course and researches the role of fact and fabrication in the marketplace.

Bernice and Leonard H. Lavin Professor Kent Grayson

“It’s not only an amazing honor to be asked to hold a chair on the Kellogg faculty, but it’s an immense pleasure to be asked to hold a chair named for someone who literally and truly invented many of the things I talk about in the classroom,” Grayson said. “Mr. Lavin was one of the first people to launch and run a national sales company, and his products often represented innovations in marketing.”

Bernice and Leonard Lavin are the co-founders of the Alberto Culver Company, which they built into a $1.5 billion enterprise. Leonard Lavin is renowned for his role in innovative marketing, while Bernice Lavin was both a business and a philanthropic leader, helping advance the organization’s missions in healthcare, women and family services.

Bernice and Leonard’s daughter, Carol Lavin Bernick, is a longtime supporter of the Kellogg School and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board. In April, Leonard Lavin and Mrs. Bernick received the 2010 Friends of the Kellogg School of Management Award.

“While the Lavin Chair is a family gift, both our family and the Alberto Culver Company believe in the teaching and the outstanding research of the Kellogg School. We hope this gift can help further its legacy of producing world-class business leaders,” said Mrs. Bernick, executive chairman of the board for Alberto Culver. “Kent is a great fit for the Lavin chair and we look forward to seeing good things from him.”