UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Michael J. Farrell knew what it meant to work hard.
In a 2019 interview, the business leader, entrepreneur and 1971 Penn State accounting graduate said he had been “hustling to make a buck” since he was in grade school. Starting with a newspaper route at the age of 9, to a job in a local shoe store at 16, to work in a steel mill during term breaks as a Penn State student, Farrell developed the type of entrepreneurial spirit that would define his adult life.
Farrell, who passed away on August 16, 2024, shared that entrepreneurial spirit with the university he loved, most notably through his gift to endow the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship in 1999. He also supported faculty, student scholarships and the Penn State football team.
“At a big school like Penn State, it’s easy to look at yourself as a number, but to be able to come back later in your career and give back, to be someone who supports the dean of the business school, the football coach and senior University leadership – he was really proud of that,” said Michael “Mike” Farrell, his son and a former offensive lineman for the Nittany Lions.
A foundation for entrepreneurship
According to Shawn Clark, the Michael J. Farrell Endowed Professor of Entrepreneurship (a position established by Farrell and his wife, Kristen, in 2014) and current director of the Farrell Center, Farrell had the foresight to help make entrepreneurship a strategic priority at Penn State and at Smeal long before the Invent Penn State initiative emerged under the leadership of Penn State President Emeritus Eric Barron.
Clark called Farrell “powerful, humble and visionary,” and said that he is proud to follow Farrell’s example by continually striving to innovate, add and enhance services and improve programmatic offerings for students and faculty with an interest in corporate innovation and entrepreneurship.
“Mike’s vision laid the foundation for all we do today,” Clark said.
The resources from the Farrell Center endowment have allowed Clark and his team to create programs and cultivate industry partnerships to benefit companies, students and faculty.
“Participating companies benefit from the talents, skills and expertise of Smeal students, who gain invaluable professional experience, and faculty benefit through an array of partnership opportunities,” he said. “The last time we spoke, Mike shared how pleased he was with the services we offer and the impact we are having on the lives of our undergraduate and graduate students. That meant a lot to me.”
Among the programs and initiatives the Farrell Center currently oversees:
- Propel Business: New Venture and Innovation Program. The program provides a virtual assistance hub for Smeal graduate students and alumni interested in new venture creation. The program includes an internship program and digital library, as well as access to financial assistance, legal assistance, student consulting teams, venture funding and other offerings.
- Garber Venture Capital Fund. The fund was established with a philanthropic gift from John and Betty Garber in 1999 and has allowed professional graduate students to evaluate and invest in early-stage companies for nearly 25 years.
- Propel Business Seed Fund. This new fund was established earlier this year to provide real-world learning opportunities for undergraduate students with an interest in learning about venture capital investing while supporting Invent Penn State’s mission to spur economic development, job creation and student success.
- Experienceship Program. This program allows rising third- and fourth-year students to gain real-work experience in small, growing Pennsylvania-based businesses.
- Innovation Grants. The grants offer up to $5,000 to sponsor projects at The Learning Factory in the College of Engineering. The Learning Factory offers prototyping, testing and development services.
“Watching students come through the entrepreneurship program and starting businesses of their own gave Mike so much joy,” Kristen Farrell said. “He loved going to campus and meeting students, hearing their stories and sharing his own.”
A business leader and entrepreneur
After a brief stint at a public accounting firm following graduation, Farrell accepted a position as corporate controller of a publicly traded company and later became vice president of finance at Motor Coils Manufacturing, a company whose primary business consisted of remanufacturing failed railroad locomotive motors.
Farrell was just 34 years old when he partnered with the vice president of sales to purchase the company.
By 1992, he was president and chief executive officer of Farrell & Co., an investment banking firm that acquired firms to which he believed he and his partners could add significant value.
According to Mike and Kristen, Standard Steel was among Farrell’s greatest professional successes.
Amid a decline in the railway industry, Freedom Forge — one of the oldest continuously operating forging companies in America — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2001. Farrell and Co. and CCIL, an affiliate of Citicorp Venture Capital, purchased the business out of bankruptcy and renamed it Standard Steel, LLC the following year.
For Farrell, the ability to think outside of the box, observe what was happening in the world and find a better way to do something was paramount to his success, and he applied that philosophy at Standard Steel.
As president, he had the opportunity to tour a locomotive wheel and axle manufacturing plant in Ukraine where he observed a more efficient way to do things back home. When he returned to the States, he led an effort to upgrade Standard Steel’s equipment, increasing productivity and driving down unit costs.
Farrell also oversaw Standard Steel’s exit from several lines of business and ceased operations at its Latrobe, Pennsylvania, plant. By focusing operations on the railway industry at its Burnham, Pennsylvania, plant, Standard Steel was able to emerge as a leader in supplying railway wheels and axels to the freight, diesel and rapid transit markets.
Although Farrell sold the company after several years, Standard Steel still exists today.
Employees never forgot Farrell’s pledge to turn the company around.
“A gentleman approached me at a wedding I attended earlier this year and asked if I was (Farrell’s) son,” Mike said. “He told me he worked with my dad at Standard Steel and credited him with saving not just the company but the town, too. It meant so much to me to hear that story, and I was proud to share it with him before he died.”