The Louis A. Bantle Chair in Business and Government Policy
Established in 1990 by Louis F. Bantle and UST, Inc., the purpose of this chair is to provide for teaching and research in business and government policy. The Bantle Chair supports the research of graduate students and holds an annual symposium as well as hosts many prominent guest speakers throughout the academic year.
The current Bantle Chair in Business-Government Policy at the Maxwell School is David M. Van Slyke. Previous holders of the Bantle Chair at Maxwell are retired Gen. Montgomery Meigs (U.S.A.); University Professor and former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe; and Arthur Brooks, former Maxwell School professor of public administration.
About the Bantle Chair in Business-Government Policy
David M. Van Slyke, dean of the Maxwell School and professor of public administration and international affairs, has served as the Louis A. Bantle Chair in Business-Government Policy since 2013. His research focuses on public and nonprofit management, government contracting, public-private partnerships, strategic management, and policy implementation. He is the author of "Complex Contracting: Government Purchasing in the Wake of the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater Program" and other publications.
Louis F. Bantle
Louis F. Bantle '51 (M.B.A.) founded the Bantle Chair in 1990 in honor of his father Louis A. Bantle, chairman, president and CEO of UST Inc., which is known for its smokeless tobacco brands Skoal and Copenhagen. Like his father, Mr. Bantle also began his career at UST and eventually rose to the office of chairman of the board and president and, later, CEO.
Louis F. Bantle was also a lifelong philanthropist and humanitarian who drove social change. In 1994, he was named the Whitman School of Management Alumnus of the Year and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. In 1996, he founded and funded the International Institute for Alcohol Education and Training and its Center for Healing in St.
Petersburg, which introduced Alcoholics Anonymous to Russia. Bantle and his wife, Virginia, were pioneers in helping establish both The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and The Buoniconti Fund in the quest to find a cure for paralysis and treat spinal cord injuries. Mr. Bantle also helped to develop one of the nation’s most successful and replicated Explorer Programs: the Explorer Post 53 Ambulance Corps.
