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DOMINO’S PIZZA FOUNDER TOM MONAGHAN HAS PUT HIS MONEY WHERE HIS VALUES ARE

Guest post by: Thomas J. Madden

Article Overview: You know him for his brilliant achievements in business. Today Pizza Tiger Tom Monaghan is putting that same enterprise and entrepreneurial spirit into higher education.

DOMINO’S PIZZA FOUNDER TOM MONAGHAN HAS PUT HIS MONEY WHERE HIS VALUES ARE

While a student at the University of Michigan, Tom Monaghan borrowed $900 and opened a small pizza store. Then came more stores that eventually grew into a company with thousands of locations and billions in annual sales-Domino's Pizza.

You may have heard about him buying the Detroit Tigers. And a year later, they won the World Series. Was it luck? The Midas touch? Good timing? Faith in God?

You've probably heard of his dedication to Catholic higher education.

This has lead to the founding of Ave Maria University on the west coast of Florida.

Using the fortune he made as a pizza pioneer, this man raised in a Catholic orphanage has given back a big chunk of it that has gone into establishing a first class university dedicated to furthering teaching, research, and learning at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the abiding tradition of Catholic thought in both national and international settings.

The University's mission is to provide students with a liberal arts education curriculum dedicated, as articulated in the apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, to the advancement of human culture, a dialogue between faith and reason and the formation of men and women in the intellectual and moral virtues of the Catholic faith.

Ave Maria also offers courses aimed at the development of professional and pre-professional programs in response to local and societal needs. As an institution committed to Catholic principles, the University "recognizes the importance of creating and maintaining an environment in which faith informs the life of the community and takes expression in all its programs."

In a few short years, Ave Maria has added a prestigious law school to its growing Catholic campus. Today this institution is flourishing academically and spiritually just northeast of Naples and also in Nicaragua, where Ave Maria is graduating future business leaders of central and South America.

I know Tom Monaghan as someone who lives his faith, a belief I share with him. I know he incorporates high standards of morality and integrity in whatever he touches.

Not too long ago, I had the honor and pleasure to introduce Tom as a speaker at a meeting of the Gold Coast Venture Capital Association in Boca Raton.

"Besides bailouts of banks and Wall Street firms, maybe now what our country needs is an Ethics Stimulus Package," I said in my introduction to this great entrepreneur or "Pizza Tiger," the title of his inspiring book.

I can't think of an entrepreneur better equipped and prepared to put business and ethics into one glorious package, but my good friend Tom Monaghan.

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Article Tags: Ave Maria, Catholic, Dominos, education, ethics, Pizza, Tom Monaghan, university, values



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