Montana College President to Run $600-Million Jack Kent Cooke Foundation

Matthew J. Quinn, president of Montana’s Carroll College, says his next job, as director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation -- with its estimated $600-million endowment -- will be a refreshing change of pace.

“As a college president, I’m always on the begging end,” says Mr. Quinn, who has led Carroll for 11 years. “Here’s an opportunity to be on the giving end.”

He will start in August as the first director of the foundation that Mr. Cooke, a sports and media entrepreneur, established in his will.

Mr. Quinn, a lawyer who has a doctorate in higher-education management, was chosen from among more than 500 candidates. “He understands how to start new things and build from the ground up,” says Jean Dowdall, a vice president with A.T. Kearney, the search firm that advised the foundation’s directors.

Mr. Cooke, who died in 1997, was a high-school dropout. He began his career selling encyclopedias door-to-door, and eventually owned the Washington Redskins football team and the Los Angeles Daily News, among other properties.

He left the bulk of his estate to the foundation. He gave few details, but instructed that the money be used for merit-based scholarships for graduate students, with matching amounts for their undergraduate institutions. He also allowed the foundation to give scholarships to high-school students and undergraduates, to build parks and sports facilities for poor children, and to create an orphanage.

In keeping with what he believes Mr. Cooke intended, Mr. Quinn says the scholarships won’t necessarily go to top students, but to those who have “outstanding ability” and “who need more of a tap on the shoulder rather than a medal on their chest.” The foundation may begin making awards by 2001 and may award about $30-million a year.

http://chronicle.com Section: Money & Management Page: A44