Investment Whiz John Scully Receives Arbuckle Award

Thirty-eight members of the MBA class of 1968 joined nearly 400 other guests at a February dinner to honor John H. Scully as the School’s 32^nd Arbuckle Award Winner. Scully founded SPO Partners, a private investment company and merchant bank, two years after earning his MBA.

Scully and his classmates traded good natured jibes including Scully’s undergraduate success selling a product know as Mojo Love Oil, before turning to a more serious note.

“1966 to 1968 was an extraordinary juxtaposition of a very prosperous economy and a period of political unrest, combined with a gathering at the GSB of highly motivated young men (It was 98 percent men and half the class was right out of undergraduate). We were brought together in a school literally blossoming under the incredible leadership of Ernie Arbuckle,” he recalled.

He posed for photos with 13 young MBA graduates who have been recipients of fellowships established by Scully in honor of his parents, Vincent and Celia Scully. He is also chairman and founder of the Making Waves program that provides tutoring, mentoring, and college guidance to more than 350 inner city youth in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Arbuckle award, named for former dean Ernest Arbuckle, is the highest honor bestowed by Graduate School of Business.

Scully’s company takes principal positions in a portfolio of public companies and undertakes significant private equity investments. The portfolio has concentrated on timberland/wood products, telecommunications, media and entertainment, real estate and hotels. SPO is the controlling shareholder of Plum Creek Timber Company, a major Seattle-based wood products real estate investment trust that owns 3.3 million timber-producing acres. SPO also is the major capital provider to a series of partnerships that own 17 luxury hotels including the San Francisco Fairmont. Mr. Scully is the largest capital partner in San Francisco’s Pier 39 development.

A 1966 graduate of Princeton, he has served that university as a trustee and as a director of the Princeton Investment Company. He is currently a trustee of Stanford University, a director for the Stanford Management Company, a director of Stanford Hospital and Clinics, and a member of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council.

By Kathleen O’Toole