Announcing the Baratta Center for Global Business and Investments in Global Business at Georgetown

April 11, 2023

Dear Members of the Georgetown University Community:

I have the privilege of announcing an $11 million gift from Joseph Patrick Baratta II (B’93) and Abigail Williams Baratta (F’96) in support of global business at Georgetown. This gift will enable us to expand and deepen a defining characteristic of our approach to business education: the study of business in a global context.

For more than a decade, through their generosity, Joe and Abbie have helped us to expand opportunities for global business education at Georgetown through the Global Business Initiative—led by Dr. Ricardo Ernst, who serves as Baratta Chair in Global Business at our McDonough School of Business—and the Global Business Education Fund, which established new experiential and immersive experiences for undergraduate students based on our globally focused MBA programs.

The new gift focuses on three areas: creating the Baratta Center for Global Business as an academic home for our global business activities; expanding opportunities for students through the endowment and expansion of our Global Business Fellows program; and supporting faculty in the development of new curriculum with the new Baratta International Business Curriculum Endowed Innovation Fund.

Building on the success of the Global Business Initiative, the new Baratta Center will provide a home for many of our activities supporting global business education and will seek to foster interdisciplinary and cross-school engagement in its programs. The Global Business Fellows program will expand to as many as 80 students who will have the opportunity to focus on quantitative analysis skills, practical experience, and global challenges. Fellows will also participate in a global residency. A new curriculum innovation fund will enable faculty to design and adapt courses and experiences to address emerging trends and topics in the global business landscape.

We are grateful to Joe and Abbie for their support of our vision for global business education and for their leadership in helping us to build and sustain these programs over time. Their contributions will support generations of students as they seek to gain a deeper understanding of global business and serve our global communities. I wish to express my deep appreciation to Joe and Abbie for their long-standing contributions to Georgetown, their service on our Board of Regents, their support of scholarships and faculty excellence, and to Joe, for his many years on our University’s Board of Directors and as a current member of our Board of Advisors at the McDonough School of Business.

I also wish to thank Dean Paul Almeida and our colleagues in the McDonough School of Business for establishing this vision for global business education and for creating these extraordinary opportunities for our students, faculty, and staff to engage our world.

As we begin the public phase of our new capital campaign, Called to Be: The Campaign for Georgetown, it is a privilege to celebrate the generosity of our community and to recognize the many ways that the members of our community embrace their call to serve.

Sincerely,

John J. DeGioia