CSUSB entrepreneurship school and center receive new name

The California State University Board of Trustees has approved the renaming of the CSUSB School of Entrepreneurship and Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship to the Randall W. Lewis School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Randall W. Lewis Center for Entrepreneurship.

The school and center are part of Cal State San Bernardino’s Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration. The CSU trustees gave its formal approval when it met on May 21.

Randall W. Lewis, executive vice president for marketing with The Lewis Group of Companies and a recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from CSUSB in 2021, has gifted the school and center with $6 million.

The endowed gift and irrevocable estate gift aim to empower the Randall W. Lewis School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation to broaden its transformative impact across the university and throughout the region. The school will continue to champion interdisciplinary approaches to entrepreneurial thinking and practice, engaging all academic colleges and administrative divisions in advancing a culture of innovation and opportunity.

“As I said back in 2021, through his nearly 50-year career in the real estate industry as well as through his extensive community leadership and service, Randall Lewis has become a well-known and widely respected business leader and philanthropist,” said CSUSB President Tomás D. Morales. “His ongoing support of the students and programs at CSUSB is literally transforming lives. And now, through this gift, our student-entrepreneurs will have both an inspiration for their own achievements along with the security of knowing their study will be sustained well into the future.”

Lewis said his gift was about the future. “I’ve always believed that the best investments we can make are in people and ideas,” he said. “Supporting the School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Cal State San Bernardino is an opportunity to help empower the next generation of creative thinkers and doers — individuals who will shape the future of our region and beyond. I’m honored to be part of a university that is committed to access, equity, and the entrepreneurial spirit.”

As Mike Stull, professor and school director as well as program director for the Randall W. Lewis Entrepreneurship Center, said when the School of Entrepreneurship was established in the fall of 2020, “Becoming the first School of Entrepreneurship in the state of California enables us to extend our existing brand as a top entrepreneurship program and continue to be an innovator both locally and within the CSU system with regard to entrepreneurship education.” Stull added, “Potential students will be drawn to CSUSB as we practice what we preach – innovation, growth and applying the entrepreneurial mindset to achieve impact.”

The Randall W. Lewis Center for Entrepreneurship operates three Entrepreneurial Resource Centers in Palm Desert, San Bernardino and Temecula, in order to better serve the people of the Inland Empire.

“The Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration strives to serve as an innovator,” said Dean Tomás Gómez-Arías. “We are already recognized as a leader in business education globally. The naming of the School of Entrepreneurship, along with the Center for Entrepreneurship, underscores the excellence of what we offer not only to the people of Inland Southern California, but also throughout our state.”

Lewis oversees sales and marketing operations for the Upland-based Lewis Group of Companies, started by his parents as a home building firm in 1955. Today, it is among the nation’s largest privately held real estate development companies. The Lewis Group focuses on developing mixed-use planned communities and residential subdivisions in California and Nevada, as well as building and owning rental communities, shopping centers, and office and industrial parks.

Lewis is a long-term member of Urban Land Institute Foundation and past governor. He has served on several executive boards, including the USC School of Policy, Planning and Development, the UCLA School of Public Policy, Loma Linda University Medical Center’s Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Institute Advisory Council, Cal Poly Pomona’s National Development Council and co-chaired the San Bernardino County Alliance for Education.

He is a leader in professional and non-profit organizations and has served as president of the Inland Empire Arts Foundation, secretary of the Los Angeles County Citizens Planning Council, director of the Home Builder’s Council and director of the National Association of Home Builders.

In recognition of his service, Lewis was inducted into the California Building Industry Hall of Fame and was honored as the Sales and Marketing Council’s MAME Awards Person of the Year. In 2004, he was an honoree of the California Homebuilding Foundation and in 2006 the Los Angeles Times named him to the “West 100” list as one of the top 100 influential people in Southern California.