BOULDER - The University of Colorado-Boulder's Leeds School of Business will offer a construction-management track within its master's program starting in fall 2013.

The classes are being developed by the Leeds school and CU's College of Engineering and Applied Science. The program is partially supported by a gift of $285,000 from alumnus Dan Ivanoff and his wife, Laurie.

The gift provides support to the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and to the CU Real Estate Center to help bring the programs together.

Ivanoff was educated in both business and engineering at CU-Boulder. He leads a large real estate investment, development and management company based in Seattle with properties throughout the western United States.

"MBA students with a fundamental understanding of construction and design will be very attractive for businesses that concentrate on ground-up development," Ivanoff said. "Real estate investment firms that hire a Leeds MBA with a concentration in real estate and construction management will get an individual with very specific capabilities and a specialization that is directly related to its business activities."

Part of the funding to engineering includes a faculty fellowship that was awarded to assistant professor Amy Javernick-Will. Her career path has included both education and industry experience in civil engineering and real-estate development.

For more information about the new construction management track visit http://realestate.colorado.edu/constructionmanagement.