UW alumnus endows human resources chair in business school

Bruce R. Ellig, a graduate of the School of Business, has given the school the funds needed to attract and retain outstanding faculty in its human resources area.

The Bruce R. Ellig Chair in Pay and Organizational Effectiveness will be established in the school’s Department of Management and Human Resources. The faculty member who will hold the chair has not yet been named.

“We are gratified that someone of Bruce Ellig’s stature in the human resources field has presented us this gift,” says Michael M. Knetter, business school dean. “It not only recognizes the work we’ve done in this critical area, but also enables us to move research and teaching in HR to a new level.”

Ellig says that his interest in pay and organizational effectiveness began when he took an undergraduate course in wage and salary administration taught at the school by former Professor Alton Johnson. The course led, he says, to his successful career in compensation and benefits at Pfizer Inc.

“Having retired after 35 years with Pfizer, I wanted to give back to the UW business school something in the way of a tangible thank-you,” Ellig says. “I could think of no better way than to create a fully endowed chair for pay and organizational effectiveness. Given the current capital campaign, I decided to make the gift now, rather than wait until it was provided by my will.”

Enhancing the school’s human resources program is a top priority for the UW–Madison business school. It offers a specialization in strategic human resource management in its new MBA program, and a major in human resource management at the undergraduate and Ph.D. levels.

A member of Beta Gamma Sigma and Phi Beta Kappa, with an undergraduate business degree and an MBA, Ellig went on to an outstanding career in the field of human resources. He rose through the ranks at Pfizer from a job analyst in 1960 to corporate vice president in charge of Worldwide Human Resources, reporting to the chair and CEO during the last 11 of his 35 years with the company before retiring.

He is known for leadership in his profession, and has served on a number of boards of directors for both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. He served as chair of the national board of directors for the Society for Human Resource Management. He also has been a member of many premier HR organizations and assumed leadership positions in many of them. He has received numerous awards and honors, and was one of the first inductees to the National Academy of Human Resources.

A popular speaker and writer in the field, Ellig has written more than 80 articles and five books on human resource topics, including the industry reference, “The Complete Guide to Executive Compensation.”

“This gift further emphasizes the important role the School of Business plays in shaping the next generation of leaders and innovators in human resources,” says Andrew “Sandy” Wilcox, University of Wisconsin Foundation president. “The Ellig gift demonstrates how an accomplished alumnus’s commitment and loyalty to the university will benefit students in his field now and in the future.”

Ellig’s gift comes to the university as part of the UW Foundation’s $1.5 billion Create the Future: The Wisconsin Campaign.