Toll

Robert I. Toll '63, chairman and chief executive officer of Toll Brothers Inc., a Fortune 500 company and a leading builder of luxury homes in the United States, will be honored on campus Wednesday, Nov. 2, as Cornell University's 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year at a luncheon hosted by Cornell Interim President Hunter R. Rawlings.

Toll Brothers, founded by Toll and his brother Bruce in 1967, develops luxury residential communities in 21 states throughout the nation. The company joined the Fortune 500 this year, ranking 36th among all companies in 10-year earnings per share growth.

In 2005 Robert Toll was named one of the world's top 30 CEOs by Barron's, which called him the "the undisputed king of high-end housing." Toll also was named CEO of the Year by Builder Magazine in 2005.

Toll earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell in 1963 and his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1966.

Toll and his wife, Jane, support numerous nonprofit groups, including Seeds of Peace, which works to secure lasting peace in the Middle East and other regions of conflict.

In 1990, the Tolls sponsored 58 third-graders in a program called "Say Yes to Education," affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. They guaranteed a college education to the students and provided counseling, instructional aid and summer programs.

Toll also has been a longtime fund-raiser for the American Red Cross and the American Cancer Society. He serves on the boards of the Cornell Real Estate Council, Seeds of Peace and Beth Shalom Synagogue and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he established the Albert and Sylvia Toll Scholarship Foundation.

The Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year (CEY) award is given annually to a Cornell graduate who best exemplifies entrepreneurial achievement, community service and high ethical standards. The past five award winners were Steve Belkin '69, chairman and founder of Trans National Group (TNG); Jules Kroll '63, executive chairman of the board of Kroll Inc.; Rob Ryan '69, founder of Ascend Communications; Jeffrey Parker '65, M.Eng. '66, MBA '70, founder of First Call and CCBN; and Jeff Hawkins '79, inventor of the PalmPilot and co-founder of Handspring Inc. A committee of Cornell alumni, faculty and students reviews the nominations and selects the recipient.

The award was established in 1984 by Cornell's S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management and is now managed by Cornell's universitywide Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise (EPE) Program. Founded in 1992 as a combined initiative of the Johnson School and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, EPE supports instruction, internships, student groups and an alumni network. The deans of the nine participating Cornell schools and colleges govern the program. An advisory council of Cornell alumni provides guidance, support and financial resources, and 40 faculty members participate in the program. Last year, 4,000 students took EPE courses, and 2,000 alumni participated in events across the country.

This year's CEY celebration will begin with a luncheon Nov. 2 at noon in the Statler Hotel. Toll will hold a question-and-answer session at 4:30 p.m. in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall, followed by a reception.

For further information about the CEY celebration or the EPE Program, contact John Jaquette, director, at (607) 255-9675 or visit the Web site: http://www.epe.cornell.edu.