In the game of high finance, Vernal native Marc Bingham is an undisputed winner. He has done so well as a businessman that his recent $15 million donation to Utah State University Uintah Basin couldn't really be considered a sacrifice.
Bingham and his wife, Debbie, will fund construction of an Entrepreneurship and Energy Research Center on the USU Uintah Basin campus in Vernal. It will educate students in the fields of business, engineering, environmental policy and related disciplines. Construction on the building is slated to begin soon, and it should be operational in 2009.
The Binghams have been generous with their money. The couple donated 19 acres of property to the College of Eastern Utah for the Mesozoic Gardens.
Their passion for hunting has led them to contribute generously to the state's Wildlife Restoration and Conservation Fund. They are also establishing a college scholarship fund for single parents.
"What's that old saying," Bingham asked, "at the end of the game the kid with the most toys wins? Well, when I sold last summer, I did take the most off the table."
The Orem-based entrepreneur referred to the profit he made from the sale of Phone Directories Company Inc., a business he started while living in Price in 1971.
He cashed in $5,000 in retirement from his previous government jobs and turned his company into one of the largest independent providers of yellow page directories in North America. Along the way, Phone Directories was listed as one of the top 500 companies in America.
In December 2005 Bingham sold his Canadian operations to HM Capital Partners, a Dallas-based private equity firm, for an undisclosed amount. Last summer the same company acquired Bingham's U.S. market for $150 million.
Phone Directories operated in 137 markets across the West and Midwest, distributing more than 8 million phone books. Bingham had planned to hold onto that market for two more years in order to avoid the upcoming 13 percent hike in the capital gains tax.
"That would have been in 2009," Bingham said, "but they offered me the 2009 price. I'm not stupid. I took it."
Rather than retire, Bingham and Debbie started an investment firm, Blue Diamond Capital.
Bingham recounted the visit to his office by USU President Stan Albrecht that resulted in his recent $15 million donation to the school — the largest ever in the history of the land grant institution. Albrecht came to invite Bingham — who graduated from USU with a degree in wildlife management — to serve on the university's board of trustees and talk business.
"I told them, 'You (expletive) tried to kick me out of school. Why do you want me now?"'
Bingham attended USU on a track scholarship but had a less-than-stellar scholastic showing. His low GPA kept him on academic probation for the first two years, although he did earn his bachelor's degree in 1963.
"I told them to put my CFO on the board," he said. "I'm not a numbers guy, I'm just the tire kicker. So they put Michael Bingham (no relation) on the board, and I told them I'd build them a building."