$10 million from Lonnie and Carol Poole launches a sports and entertainment school at Methodist University—their donation follows their earlier $40 million gift to education

Lonnie Poole has spent much of his life thinking about the work most people never see.

In 1970 he founded Waste Industries in Raleigh, a company built on the early-morning routes and unseen logistics that keep a community running.

He led it as chairman, president, and chief executive until he retired in 2008, and it grew into one of the largest waste and recycling companies in the Southeast.

Now he and his wife, Carol, are applying that same respect for behind-the-scenes work to an industry known for its spotlights.

Through the Lonnie & Carol Poole Family Foundation, the couple has made a $10 million lead gift to North Carolina Wesleyan University in Rocky Mount.

The gift will create the School of Sports, Entertainment, and Venue Enterprise, called the SEVE School.

The university describes it as a first-of-its-kind academic pathway that will train students for careers in sports and entertainment management, live event production, venue operations, and related fields.

At the signing ceremony, Lonnie Poole explained the idea behind the gift with a question.

“At any event, there are literally hundreds of people working behind the scenes to prepare, plan, and deliver the experience for the public,” he said.

“But who trains them? Why not teach these skills at the university level? Why not give sports, entertainment, and venue operations the same level of importance as those on the field, ice, or stage?

That is exactly what the School of Sports, Entertainment, and Venue Enterprise at NC Wesleyan intends to do.”

The question reflects his own path.

Poole was the first in his family to attend college.

He earned a civil engineering degree from North Carolina State University in 1959 and later an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Between those degrees, he flew as an Army aviator and worked as an engineer before starting his own company.

He knows from experience that a practical education can change the direction of a life.

The SEVE School will start with a Bachelor of Science in Sports & Entertainment Business. The university also plans certificates in Venue & Event Management and Esports Management, and it expects to add more bachelor’s programs, specialized tracks, and graduate degrees as the school grows.

Students will take hands-on classes from professors with industry experience, and their coursework will be shaped around the careers they want.

The program will also offer professional development, internships, and chances to meet people working in the field.

The Pooles’ gift starts a five-year plan.

The school launches this year, and the goal is a fully accredited, self-sustaining program on the Rocky Mount campus by 2031, eventually serving hundreds of students.

The university is also beginning a $30 million fundraising effort to cover the school’s full establishment, staffing, equipment, programs, and operations.

The Pooles’ contribution is the first major commitment toward that total.

University President Evan Duff said the gift came at a key moment.

“The Pooles’ transformational gift comes to NC Wesleyan at exactly the right moment,” he said.

“The sports, entertainment, and venue industry is growing quickly across North Carolina and the rest of the country, producing hundreds of billions of dollars a year in revenue with steady demand for trained professionals.

With the SEVE School, NCWU is uniquely positioned to meet that demand through our academic offerings and location, as our Rocky Mount campus is within driving distance of the region’s top sports franchises and event venues.”

For North Carolina Wesleyan, the new school continues a period of change.

The Methodist institution was founded in 1956 after the people of Rocky Mount asked the church to open a college there.

It added its first master’s programs in 2015 and became a university in 2022.

A school built around one of the state’s fastest-growing industries gives the campus in eastern North Carolina a clear new identity and connects its students to the arenas, stadiums, and concert halls a short drive away.

The relationship between the Pooles and the university did not begin with this gift. In 2022, the family foundation gave $250,000 to renovate more than 40 faculty offices, several classrooms, and six restrooms across three campus buildings.

Thomas Winstead, a university trustee, helped build that relationship. It was a modest, practical gift, and the much larger commitment has grown out of it.

Carol Johnson Poole leads the Raleigh-based foundation as its president. She attended Meredith College and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Under her leadership, the foundation supports educational, civic, and community efforts across North Carolina, with a focus on ethical business and entrepreneurship, the education of young people, and programs that help people escape poverty by rewarding individual effort.

The couple’s giving has shaped North Carolina institutions for years.

In 2010, they pledged $40 million to N.C. State, at the time the largest gift in the university’s history, and its business school became the Poole College of Management.

Lonnie Poole is known as the largest donor in N.C. State’s history. More recently, the foundation gave $2 million to Habitat for Humanity of Wake County.

Across these gifts, the Pooles have tended to back institutions that turn ambition into practical skills.

Lonnie Poole made clear that the SEVE School gift is about more than one campus. “Carol and I have confidence in the vision and leadership of Dr. Duff and the leadership cabinet at NCWU, and we are honored to be part of what they are building,” he said.

“We believe the impact of the SEVE School will reach far beyond the university in developing people, creating opportunity, and strengthening communities across North Carolina and beyond. We cannot wait to see what grows from this investment.”

Every concert, championship game, and sold-out show depends on people the audience rarely notices: the planners, the operations staff, the event producers.

With this gift, Lonnie and Carol Poole are making sure those people have a place to learn their trade in Rocky Mount.