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HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JULY 24, 2023 9 CORNER OFFICE Building Ideas That Work... Building Ideas That Work... Contact us at 860.482.7613 or visit us at BorghesiBuilding.com 2155 East Main Street Torrington, Connecticut 06790 © 2011 BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. All rights reserved. Butler Manufacturing ™ is a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. Borghesi Building & Engineering Co., Inc. will guide you in defining your project goals, help analyze your prospective property and provide a realistic budget. For more than 80 years, Borghesi Building & Engineering Co., Inc. has provided quality and reliability with design and energy efficient construction. With an attractive design, it presents to your customers a comfortable relaxing environment to help promote sales. You will appreciate the quality your facility presents. FUJI PLAZA, TORRINGTON MEN'S WEARHOUSE, WEST SIMSBURY WALGREENS, TORRINGTON Big endowment But none of that comes cheap. Choate has an endowment approaching a half-billion dollars, but perhaps more importantly, it has a wealth of active alumni who have shown a willingness to pitch in. Many of the buildings bear the names of graduates who led fund- raising efforts that routinely run from $100 million to $200 million. In its most recently available tax filing, Choate reported $80.5 million in fiscal year 2021 revenue, down from pre-pandemic levels. Like any business, Choate is on the prowl for new revenue streams. Taking on more students while maintaining the culture at the Wall- ingford campus isn't practical. But the strategic plan calls for an exploration of opening additional campuses, or forming "global partnerships." Strong Asian ties — and 15 students from Singapore arriving next fall — offer some possibilities, as does the level of interest from the West Coast. About 10% of last year's students were from California. Alison Cady, the school's chief communications officer, confirms Curtis has traveled internationally this year for conversations. "Stay tuned," she says. Meanwhile, back on the Wallingford campus, next up is construction of a welcome center to improve those important visits by parents and students considering Choate. School safety And then there are those unplanned, unpredictable events that keep Curtis up at night. A decade after the Sandy Hook school shooting, and just months after a mass shooting at a private school in Nashville, Curtis says he feels Choate's security plan is strong. But is it enough? Is there more that can or should be done? There's no way to know, and that weighs on Curtis. Student safety is paramount, he acknowledges. Meantime, several sexual miscon- duct cases that have come to light over the last decade have drawn negative attention to the school. One — involving incidents that allegedly occurred years ago — resulted in the dismissal of a faculty member last year. Sudden blows to its reputation and/ or the perception of student safety seem among the few threats to the school, which next year cele- brates the 50th anniversary of the Choate-Rosemary Hall merger. Yet, those threats are plenty to keep any business leader up at night. Prominent Choate Rosemary Hall alumni • President John F. Kennedy (Class of 1935) and his brother Joe Kennedy (1933) • Pulitzer Prize winners, playwright Edward Albee (1946) and New York Times Editor Hedrick Smith (1951) • Oscar winners Michael Douglas (1963), Jaime Lee Curtis (1976), Geoffrey Fletcher (1988) and Alan Jay Lerner (1936) • Nobel laureate in economics, Douglass North (1938) • President of the National Organization for Women, Terry O'Neill (1970) • Women's Olympic hockey players Julie Chu (2001), Kim Insalaco (1999), Hilary Knight (2007), Josephine Pucci (2009) and Angela Ruggiero (1998) • Business leaders, Hong Jung-wook (1989), Herbert Kohler (1957) and Paul Mellon (1925) • President of production at 20th Century Fox, Alexander Morgan Young (1988) • Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuk of Bhutan (2003) • Manhattan Project nuclear physicist Katharine Way (1920) • Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson (1918) • Novelist John Dos Passos (1911) • Daughters of the rich and famous, Amanda Hearst (2002) and Ivanka Trump (2000)