Holy Cross Launches Ciocca Center for Business, Ethics, and Society

College of the Holy Cross has launched a new center for the study of business, with a liberal arts emphasis on the question of how business can contribute to the common good.

The mission of the new Carlyse and Arthur A. Ciocca ’59 Center for Business, Ethics and Society is to foster a distinctively liberal arts approach to the study of business and its role in society.

“We are not just concerned with what our students will do, we are concerned with who they will be in the world,” said Provost Margaret Freije. “This is the unique contribution that Holy Cross can make to our students, and to our world, as we prepare some students to become principled business leaders and all to become critically engaged citizens in a world deeply shaped by business.”

The Center is funded through $2 million in new funding from Arthur Ciocca ‘59, founder and chairman emeritus of the Wine Group, Inc., and Carlyse Ciocca. This gift builds on the Cioccas' original gift of $6.3 million to establish the College’s Office of Entrepreneurial Studies, and is matched by an additional $1.5 million from the Charles Koch Foundation. The gift will support expanded workshop and internship opportunities, financial aid for students participating in these opportunities, and funding for additional faculty and courses to support the College’s established co-curricular certificates and a new interdisciplinary minor.

The Ciocca Center will provide opportunities for Holy Cross students to develop the technical and applied skills, entrepreneurial spirit and strong ethical framework they will need to serve in a wide range of leadership roles, whether in corporations, start-ups, non-profits or other organizations. It will also support opportunities for students to develop an interdisciplinary perspective on the world of business and to explore overarching questions about the proper role of business in a just, sustainable and flourishing society.

Holy Cross, for 175 years a leader in the liberal arts, already produces a wealth of alumni who enter the business world. The Ciocca Center will deepen the study of business, integrating experiential learning opportunities such as internships and intensive workshops with liberal arts coursework that emphasizes ethical reasoning and develops an interdisciplinary perspective on business. The Center will also continue to partner closely with the college’s Center for Career Development.

Arthur Ciocca ‘59 formed the Wine Group in 1981 when he and his associates purchased the wine assets from the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of New York. Today, the Wine Group is the second largest wine company in the United States by sales volume. Ciocca entered Holy Cross in 1955, enrolling in the four-year Navy ROTC program. After serving in the Navy post-graduation, Ciocca worked for General Foods, Gallo Winery, and the Wine Group of Coca-Cola Bottling Company of New York before forming his own company.

Carlyse Ciocca is president and co-trustee of the Arthur and Carlyse Ciocca Charitable Foundation which focuses its giving on promoting entrepreneurship and offering scholarships to promising young students with leadership and entrepreneurial potential. She is a trustee emerita on the California Pacific Medical Center Foundation and serves with her husband on the Board of Visitors at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

The Charles Koch Foundation supports research, educational programs, and civil discourse to advance an understanding of how people can best live together in peace and prosperity. The Foundation provides grants to support a wide range of inquiry on issues including criminal justice and policing reform, free speech and open inquiry, foreign policy, economic opportunity, and innovation.