Business leader and USC alumnus James Parks has donated $15 million to USC’s Leventhal School of Accounting to name its master of business taxation degree program and endow its chair, university officials announced Wednesday.
The program will now be called the Jennifer and James R. Parks Master of Business Taxation Program in honor of Parks and his late wife. The donation will also establish the Jennifer and James R. Parks Chair of Taxation, help fund a renovation of the program’s building and pay for scholarships.
Parks, who is a member of USC’s Marshall School of Business Board of Leaders, is a certified public accountant and managing director of accounting firm CBIZ MHM as well as a shareholder of affiliated firm Mayer Hoffman McCann in West Los Angeles.
Parks is a 1972 graduate of USC and received his master’s of business taxation Degree from the school in 1975.
“The education and preparation I received over my years at USC Leventhal was the foundation for much of my future success,” Parks said in a statement. “My late wife, Jennifer, and I felt strongly that it was our duty to give back one day.”
Kind Needs New Slogan
Hollywood marijuana industry finance find Kind Financial has agreed to cease its use of “seed-to-banking” as a way to describe its suite of services, following a dispute with Integrated Compliance Solutions, a Las Vegas company that filed for a trademark on that term last year.
According to emails obtained by the Business Journal, Kind Chief Executive David Dinenberg has agreed to stop using the term and directed his head of marketing to pull the wording from future materials.
Under its former name, Blue Line Financial Services, Integrated Compliance filed for a trademark in November for the slogan “seed-to-bank.” Kind had previously used the “seed-to-banking” slogan on its website and in marketing materials. Kind intends to offer payment and money-management services to marijuana businesses, which are shunned by most commercial banks because peddling marijuana remains illegal at the federal level.
A representative for Kind did not immediately respond to the Business Journal’s request for comment.
See the Business Journal’s previous coverage here.
