The Business Beat: John and Kay Bassett

John Bassett will relocate to Heritage University in Washington State following his retirement in June 2010 as president of Clark University in Worcester.

Heritage University is a small, private institution located on land that is part of the Yakama Nation, near Yakima in south-central Washington. John Bassett was formally installed as
Clark’s eighth president in March 2001. At Heritage, he will succeed Heritage's
founding president Dr. Kathleen Ross of the Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary), who served for 27 years in the post.
During a decade marked by tumultuous global and domestic crises and a dramatically altered higher-education landscape, John Bassett has worked closely with faculty, alumni and friends of Clark to advance academic goals and strengthen Clark's reputation as a research institution. Under his tenure, Clark has significantly strengthened its position in the undergraduate marketplace, becoming a more highly selective university. At a time when the stock market has been essentially flat, Clark's endowment during Bassett's tenure has increased from $152 million to $240 million, a gain of 58 percent. In addition, annual endowment income over that span has grown 124 percent, from $5.8 million to $13 million.
My guests are John Bassett and his wife, Kay Bassett.