Former Sleep Train Owner Donates $6M To Sacramento State
The money is going towards the building the Dale and Katy Carlsen Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
By kmvq on November 14, 2017
Sacramento State University recently received its biggest donation ever of $6 million from former Sleep Train Mattress Centers owner Dale Carlsen.
The donation was made to go towards a center for innovation and entrepreneurship, which has been in talks between Carlsen and Sacramento State President Robert S. Nelsen for the past two years.
According to the Sacramento Bee, “the Dale and Katy Carlsen Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship will take over the multimedia room in the library and have classes and curriculum provided by UC Berkeley.”
$1 million is going towards hiring the executive director and for start-up costs and an endowment will be set up with the remaining $5 million. University officials want to raise another $5 million to double the endowment.
Many local business owners and academics will guide the center, making this a great community-building addition.
Carlsen said at a campus conference:
“Right now at Sacramento State and in our region, this is a transformative time. This is the time to grow more entrepreneurs, grow more businesses, grow more jobs in our area, and this is the way to do it. We have to do it through innovation. We’ve got to do it through creativity.
“The old-school way doesn’t work anymore. Changing the mindset at the campus will change the mindset in the region.”
