W.Va. Business Hall of Fame to induct four tonight

 Four business leaders who demonstrate the state’s potential have been named to the West Virginia Business Hall of Fame.

    Stuart M. Robbins, Kimberly Brown Knopf, Fred T. Tattersall and Douglass R. Van Scoy will be inducted into the Hall tonight at the Waterfront Place Hotel. The 6:30 p.m. ceremony, with a reception immediately following, is open to the public.

    The Hall of Fame was established in 2001 by the WVU College of Business and Economics to publicly recognize extraordinary business leaders and to establish a record of their achievement.

    Those inducted into the Hall of Fame must have established a record of distinction in their field and industry in the categories of national/international businesses, state-based enterprises or entrepreneurial and family businesses. They must also have connections to West Virginia, either by birth, residence, education or business presence. Forty-six individuals have previously been inducted.

    Stuart M. Robbins

    After graduating from WVU with a degree in history in 1965, Robbins studied law at New York University and did advanced study in business at the University of Pittsburgh and Pace University.

    Robbins began his career in the securities industry as a research/credit analyst with Mellon Bank, eventually becoming managing director of global equities at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette. During his time at DLJ, he served as a member of the company’s executive committee and eventually on the board of directors until his retirement in 2000.

    In 1983, Robbins started his long-term relationship with the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences as a member of the advisory board, and by 1991 he had expanded his service to the WVU Foundation Board of Directors. In 2001, he accepted the role of vice-chair of the National Campaign Committee for the Foundation’s Building Greatness Campaign. In 2003, he was elected chairman of the WVU Foundation board of directors.

    Robbins and his wife created the “Stuart and Joyce Robbins Scholarship Endowment” in 1998; the “Stuart & Joyce Robbins Chair,” the first to benefit the WVU History Department in 2001; the “Stuart M. and Joyce N. Robbins Presidential Endowment”; and the “Stuart M. and Joyce N. Robbins Center for Global Business and Strategy 20/21” and the “Stuart M. and Joyce N. Robbins Distinguished Professorship in Epidemiology,” both in 2011.

    Fred T. Tattersall

    Tattersall graduated with honors in 1970 from WVU’s College of Business and Economics with a B.S. in finance. He went on to serve as a senior vice president in the Fixed Income Division in what today is the Bank of America. He is chairman of 1607 Capital Partners, a Richmond-based investment management company established in 2007.

    He serves on the WVU Foundation board of directors, and is a trustee with the World Golf Foundation and active as a trustee for First Tee, an organization which seeks to impact youth through the game of golf.

    Last year, Tattersall made the largest single contribution to the WVU College of Business and Economics, a gift that will be used to endow a distinguished chair in finance.

Kimberly Brown Knopf

    Brown Knopf is the founder, president and chief executive officer of Innovative Mattress Solutions, a Winfield, W.Va.-based retailer doing business as Mattress Warehouse and Sleep Outfitters. The company has more than 100 stores in four states: West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. A native of Louisville, Ky., she opened her first store in South Charleston in 1983.

    Douglas R. Van Scoy

    After receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees from WVU and completing a stint in the U.S. Army, Douglas Van Scoy started his investment career in 1969 with Blyth, Eastman, Dillon. In 1974 he went to work for the investment firm of Smith Barney, retiring in 2001 as deputy director and senior executive vice president.