UCF SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTING TO RECEIVE $5M: Ken Dixon, a CPA and real estate developer from Kissimmee, Fla., will endow more than $2.5 million to the University of Central Florida's School of Accounting.
The funds will be earmarked to support faculty recruitment and research and, as a result, the gift will create the Kenneth G. Dixon School of Accounting, pending approval by the university's board of trustees. A subsequent match by the state of Florida will boost the endowment to more than $5 million.
Specific plans for the proceeds will go toward hiring a nationally recognized director for the school and to funding the Kenneth G. Dixon Eminent Scholar Chair in Accounting.
It marks the largest single cash gift received by UCF's College of Business Administration and the university's largest donation from an alumnus.
Dixon, 54, earned an accounting degree from UCF in 1975. He began his career with Price Waterhouse that same year and entered the real estate business in 1987.
Dixon currently serves as president and chief executive of Leland Enterprises Inc., in Kissimmee, and is a member of the Florida Institute of CPAs and the American Institute of CPAs.
"I am investing to help the school achieve a prominent position in the field of accounting," Dixon said, "especially given the current size and momentum of the college and the university over the last several years."
