Mike and Cindy Watts Donate $30 Million to ASU College of Public Service

Oct. 29, 2018

Former Sunstate Equipment Co owner Mike Watts and his wife Cindy have donated 30 million to Arizona State University39s Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions — Former Sunstate Equipment Co. owner Mike Watts and his wife Cindy have donated $30 million to Arizona State University's Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions.

Founders and former owners of Sunstate Equipment Co. Mike and Cindy Watts donated $30 million to Arizona State University, which renamed its public service college to the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions. The Watts College is one of ASU’s transdisciplinary schools dedicated to an educational and learning environment that trains students to serve their communities.

Emerging innovative new programs will be funded because of the Watts’ generosity including building communities, including efforts to revitalize Maryvale, Ariz., the community where both Mike and Cindy Watts grew up. Programs also include increasing access to higher education and enhancing student engagement opportunities through scholarships, service learning, study abroad programs and internships. Also offered will be academic excellence in service of the community through five endowed professorships across the spectrum of public service and funding for the testing and deployment of service programs to address community needs.

Mike Watts recently retired from Sunstate Equipment Co., which he founded in 1977. The Watts’ son Chris is now CEO of the company, now owned by Sumitomo Corp.

About the Author

Michael Roth

Editor

Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.