UMD News Releases

UMD Labovitz School of Business and Economics (LSBE) Dean Kjell R. Knudsen has announced the establishment of the Roy LaBounty Center for Entrepreneurship. The creation of the Center is a result of a generous gift from Roy E. LaBounty, founder of LaBounty Manufacturing and a long time supporter of UMD.

Administered by the Labovitz School's dean's office, the new Center will promote entrepreneurship and business development initiatives through out Northeastern Minnesota. Mr. LaBounty's endowment will be the primary funding mechanism providing greatly enhanced opportunities for the Labovitz School for more entrepreneurial endeavors and business activities in Duluth and the Iron Range.

Three departments (centers) within LSBE already have strong track records of assisting entrepreneurial development and small business growth. These departments, with their depth of expertise in the field, will work with the LSBE dean's office to generate proposals for new development initiatives through the LaBounty Center.

Those UMD departments include:
The Center for Economic Development
The Bureau of Business and Economic Research
UMD professors with specific expertise in the field of entrepreneurship

"We are very grateful to Roy LaBounty for his generous endowment for the establishment of the Center," said Dean Knudsen. "His gift presents a great opportunity for the Labovitz School to continue to pursue and enhance important entrepreneurial activity in Northeastern Minnesota."

Roy LaBounty has been an entrepreneur and prominent business leader in Northeastern Minnesota for many years. He is the founder and former president of LaBounty Manufacturing in Two Harbors, Minnesota. In 1999 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Joel Labovitz Entrepreneurial Success Awards event.

Founded in 1973, LaBounty Manufacturing first began to produce industrial grapples used in the construction trades. Since then, the company has expanded its product line to include mobile shears for metal, concrete, wood and tire processing; concrete processors and pulverizers; the Universal Processor (which will process a variety of materials); and numerous custom and specialty products. Their excavator-mounted hydraulic sheers has set the world standard for this equipment--which is used in the construction, demolition, bridge and road reconstruction, scrap processing and recycling industries. LaBounty Manufacturing merged with a subsidiary of the Stanley Works in 1992 and continues to be a major employer in the Two Harbors, Minnesota area.

About the Labovitz School of Business and Economics:
The Labovitz School of Business and Economics has 2,060 undergraduate students and 70 graduate students, with 44 full-time faculty. It is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) - International. The Labovitz School offers the Bachelor of Accounting degree (B.Ac.) and the Bachelor of Business Administration degree (B.B.A.). The majors available within the B.B.A. program are: Finance, Health Care Management, Human Resources Management, Management Information Systems, Organizational Management, and Marketing. An Economics major is also offered. An MBA degree is offered both at UMD and on the Rochester, Minnesota campus.