West Virginia University Athletics

This program was funded through a generous $1.6 million dollar gift from John and Elaine Chambers. A native of Charleston, West Virginia, John served as CEO, chairman and executive chairman for a quarter century at Cisco Systems. He helped the company expand from $70 million in 1991 to $47 billion when he stepped down as CEO in 2015.

Prior to the start of his business career, John earned a bachelor's degree in business (1971) and a law degree (1974) from West Virginia University. He subsequently earned a master of business administration in finance and management (1975) from Indiana University.
 
As executive chairman, a position Chambers held until December 2017, he led the board of directors and counseled the CEO and leadership team on strategy, digital transformation and strategic partnerships. He also spearheaded the creation and development of Cisco’s country digitization program, where he partnered with government leaders across the world to harness the power of technology to create economic opportunities.
    
                                                                                                                 
 
He is now the founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures, a purpose-driven venture capital firm focused on helping disruptive start-ups from around the world build and scale, while also promoting the broader development of start-up nations and a start-up world. He invests in companies across categories and geographies that are leading market transitions, such as Aspire Food Group, Balbix, Bloom Energy, Dedrone, IoTium, Lucideus, OpenGov, Pindrop, Privoro, Rubrik, SparkCognition, Sprinklr and Uniphore.
 
Chambers has received numerous awards for his leadership, including being named the number two “Best-Performing CEOs in the World” in 2015 from Harvard Business Review and receiving the Edison Achievement Award for Innovation. Chambers was most recently awarded the Outstanding Civil Service Medal by the U.S. Army, as well as France's National Defense Gold Medal, the only foreign business leader to ever receive the award in its 35-year history.

Chambers was also named one of Barron’s’ “World’s Best CEOs," “CEO of the Year” by Chief Executive Magazine, Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People," the “Best Boss in America” by 20/20, one of BusinessWeek’s “Top 25 Executives Worldwide,” the Business Council’s “Award for Corporate Leadership,” “Best Investor Relations by a CEO” from Investor Relations Magazine three times and the 2012 Bower Award for Business Leadership from the Franklin Institute.
 
Read more about their donation at: https://www.wvuf.org/news-publications/news/2022/05/02/-1-6m-gift-to-wvu-football-expands-educational-opportunities-via-5th-quarter-program