Scholarship Breakfast, the Naveen Jindal School of Management’s annual fundraiser, was set to return in person and — for the first time — on campus Nov. 17, after having to move to a virtual format due to COVID-19 in 2020.

Guests coming to the Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center were to hear a keynote speech from Lori J. Ryerkerk, chair, chief executive officer and president of Celanese Corporation, a Fortune 500 global chemical and specialty materials company based in Dallas.

Named CEO, as well as a member of the board of directors, in May 2019, Ryerkerk was appointed chairman of the board in April 2020, at the outset of the COVID-19 outbreak. After leading through a turbulent year that included the pandemic, a record-breaking hurricane season with implications for her business, and major social change precipitated by the death of George Floyd, Ryerkerk was set to comment on the process and power of navigating through disruption in her Scholarship Breakfast speech, “Leading Through Challenging Times (Hurricanes to COVID) and the Importance of Communi- cations, Engagement and Inclusion.”

The breakfast has had the same yearly goals since it began in 2009: to offer a forum to hear and discuss relevant business issues and to support the education goals of Jindal School students — the next generation of business leaders. The event has raised more than $935,000 and funded more than 550 new scholarship awards for Jindal School students.

The school’s external relations and development teams recently won a Marketing Event of the Year Award from the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the American Marketing Association for their successful efforts in transitioning the 2020 breakfast online (see External Relations and Development Teams Earn Marketing Award).