Maximizing Potential

For Don and Cheryl Seymour, lending their philanthropic support to education is deeply personal.

“Higher education has changed our lives,” Don said. “We have a large family across Canada and the Cayman Islands, and the educational opportunity at The University of Texas at Austin enabled us to succeed and be in the privileged position to give back.”

The Seymours maximized their impact with a generous gift to the Harkey Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies in the McCombs School of Business. The Harkey Institute was established in 2021 through a $10 million naming gift from alumnus John D. Harkey Jr., BBA ’83, and Peni Barfield that was designed to match all investments of $500,000 or more in endowed funding.

The Seymour Family Endowment will provide ongoing support for the Institute, which offers rigorous programs, hands-on experiences, mentorship and connections to the Austin start-up ecosystem for students who hope to launch their own businesses.

Don, who was honored in May 2024 with the Longhorn 100’s inaugural President’s Impact Award, graduated from UT with a degree in accounting and went on to build a remarkable career in the global hedge fund industry. Don and Cheryl find fulfillment in helping others succeed and ensuring that students can discover and nurture their talents. As a locus for innovation and development of potential, The Harkey Institute provided the perfect opportunity for their investment.

Ranked 2nd in the nation for undergraduate entrepreneurship by the Princeton Review, the Harkey Institute’s entrepreneurship minor is open to Longhorns across campus and boasts 800 students from more than 150 different majors, illustrating its truly interdisciplinary nature. The curriculum requires students to learn fundamental skills in ideation, creation, business plans, marketing, pitching and product development, forming a strong foundation for their pursuits to start new businesses and create value. These are spirited entrepreneurs who will help solve the problems and meet the needs of the future.

The well-rounded program’s ability to help promising students forge a path to innovation and professional success was striking to Don and Cheryl: “There really is no limit to what they can accomplish,” Cheryl said.

It’s important to Don and Cheryl to include their daughters in the decisions they make about giving back through philanthropy. Stella, 17, and Ava, 14, had the opportunity to meet with students from the Harkey Institute and be inspired by UT’s hub for entrepreneurial thinking.

“We stress communication in our family and everyone shares their input,” Don said. “Their perspective matters to us.”