Shin-Etsu Chemical, SEH America get special corporate accolade during donor gala
Clark College Foundation highlights longstanding business-college friendship
Board members Takach and Wallace receive presidential awards
Tatsuo Ito, executive vice president of SEH America, accepts the Corporate Friend of Education award from President Robert Knight and Foundation President/CEO Lisa Gibert.
A longtime friendship between SEH America, Shin-Etsu Chemical Company and Clark College was honored at Savoring Excellence, an annual donor appreciation gala on May 20.
In between song, dance and musical performances by Clark students, more than 160 guests rose to their feet as they applauded Tatsuo Ito, executive vice president of SEH America, a semiconductor materials group of Shin-Etsu Chemical. Clark President Robert K. Knight and Lisa Gibert, president/CEO of Clark College Foundation, presented Ito with a Corporate Friend of Education award.
Knight highlighted a long-standing alliance between the college, Shin-Etsu Chemical and SEH America, a Vancouver-based silicon wafer manufacturer.
“Friendship is the basis for how Shin-Etsu Chemical Company, parent of SEH, built a bond between our countries, our cities, our rotary clubs and our college,” he said.
As a result, Clark students have benefited from a Japanese garden on its main campus, scholarships and fundraising events for Japanese students.
Gibert said, “The company has warmed our hearts for years and its kindness is displayed daily through beauty, student support and a passion toward our shared values and ideals.”
In addition to the corporate award, community leaders Rick Takach and Greg Wallace were presented with Clark College Foundation’s Presidential Award during the ceremony. Takach and Wallace are members of the foundation’s board of directors. Wallace is the current board chair. Their strategic planning expertise and leadership during the foundation’s Ensuring a Bright Future: Campaign for Clark College, was highlighted as an exceptional commitment to the success of the $26 million fundraising campaign.
Left to right, Greg Wallace and Rick Takach receive the Presidential Award from President/CEO Lisa Gibert and President Robert Knight.
“These gentleman contributed an enormous amount of time and effort into a strategic plan that provided focus and alignment while we were producing campaign results,” said Gibert, adding, “Thank you, Mr. Greg Wallace and Mr. Rick Takach for never giving up, for pushing us along the way and for rebuilding the foundation’s operational structure that will guide us for years.”
