Herman Meinders, an OCU alumnus, has made a multi-million dollar commitment to Oklahoma City University’s Meinders School of Business to fund a unique Business Leadership Fellows Program.
Commencing in the Fall of 2018 and annually thereafter, students who are accepted to the Meinders Business Leadership Fellows Program will receive a full-tuition scholarship for up to four years combined with co-curricular learning enrichment and leadership development opportunities. The scholarships will fund up to 18 students per year.
Meinders said he established the scholarship program to assist in the recruitment of exceptionally high-quality students interested in business and leadership, and provide these students with an innovative and high-engagement learning environment unlike any other undergraduate experience. Meinders asserted, “The AACSB accredited and highly regarded business school at Oklahoma City University is the right educational environment for these types of students."
The business school at OCU was named the Meinders School of Business in the 1980s, and Mr. Meinders funded the new building’s construction, which opened in 2004.
Since then, Meinders has continued to support the school through mentoring, encouragement, and several additional gifts, including backing an annual Investment Club project with $200,000 no-interest loans as seed money each school year. Meinders founded American Floral Services (AFS), an international flowers-by-wire service based in Oklahoma City, in 1970. AFS began in a garage apartment and initially consisted of 137 subscriber florists. From that beginning, AFS grew to become international in scope and ranked as one of the largest floral wire services in the world. In 2000, AFS merged with Teleflora, a competitor, to better serve the floral community.
