TCU alum Bill Shaddock makes innovative investment in the Neeley School of Business

Fort Worth, TX

1/31/2007

Entrepreneur and TCU business alumnus Bill Shaddock made an innovative investment in the Neeley School of Business at TCU to establish the Bill Shaddock Investment Fund for student-run businesses. The Fund will provide low-interest debt capital, mezzanine financing and/or space at TCU Tech Fort Worth, a business and technology incubator, to small businesses started or owned by TCU students. The capital can be used to analyze a business opportunity, fund the start-up of a company or provide working capital for an existing company. Each selected TCU entrepreneur will be known as a Shaddock Entrepreneurial Fellow.

“The Bill Shaddock Investment Fund will further enhance the already renowned entrepreneurship program at Neeley and the business school as a whole,” said David Minor, director of the Neeley Entrepreneurship Center. “As well as providing low-cost capital to TCU students to start, grow and/or house businesses, Neeley business students who serve on the funding committee will get an outstanding opportunity and excellent résumé enhancer to help them land positions in finance and accounting professions.”

“Mr. Shaddock is one of the many outstanding Neeley alumni who demonstrate how important the Neeley School is to them by getting get involved and staying connected after graduation,” remarked Dr. Daniel R. Short, dean of the Neeley School. “In addition to providing funding, his investment in Neeley promotes initiative, inventiveness and confidence in student business ventures.”

“I’ve been blessed with success in my entrepreneurial endeavors, and I want to make sure that TCU students with an entrepreneurial inclination have the opportunity to follow their dreams and be successful as well,” says Shaddock, who founded and owns Willowbend Mortgage and Capital Title of Texas, and is president/partner in The Shaddock Development Company. “With the Shaddock Investment Fund, I hope to help TCU recruit entrepreneurial students, teach them, nurture them and send them on their way full of excitement about an entrepreneurial way of life.”

TCU students will apply to receive resources from the Shaddock Fund. Plans are to have a funding committee comprised of finance and accounting majors with oversight by a faculty member and local bank executives and private equity investors. Minor says he expects the first investments to be made in fall 2007.

“I am grateful for the education that I received at TCU and am pleased to express that gratitude in a tangible way,” says Shaddock. “I want to have an impact on young people and make a positive difference in their lives.”