Urban Outfitters founder Richard A. Hayne wins a big business award

Mayor Nutter honored billionaire businessman Richard A. Hayne with the 2011 Edward Powell Award on Monday. The Urban Outfitters Inc. founder said he would donate the $100,000 prize to Drexel University, along with another $100,000 of his own fortune.

The award, bestowed every four years on a business leader deemed to have contributed significantly to the city's economic prosperity, was presented to Hayne at the annual Mayoral Luncheon of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce held at the Sheraton at 17th and Race Streets.

Hayne was chosen from a field of more than 100 nominees, thanks to the "magnitude" of having founded Urban Outfitters in Philadelphia and having kept it local as it grew into a global retailer over four decades, said William P. Hankowsky, the onetime Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. (PIDC) president who is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Liberty Property Trust.

Hankowsky led the three-person committee, appointed by Nutter, whose members solicited nominations and recommended the winner.

"It was a unanimous choice," said Hankowsky, who praised Hayne's philanthropy and said his corporation's decision to relocate to the Philadelphia Navy Yard in recent years and expand its headquarters was a catalyst for revitalization. PIDC was a partner in helping the company acquire and develop property at the Navy Yard.

In presenting the award, Nutter said Urban Outfitters - which includes the namesake retail chain, as well as the Anthropologie, Free People, Terrain and BHLDN brands - proved that "when a good idea is done right, it can succeed spectacularly."

In brief remarks to a packed ballroom of politicians, business leaders, lawyers, and other movers and shakers, Hayne, 64, said, "I am extremely honored."

He said he was "blessed" for receiving the $100,000 award, adding later that he had matched it with $100,000 to help fund seed projects at the Lawrence A. Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship at Drexel University. Hayne is among Drexel's most generous benefactors.

In an interview afterward, Hayne would not discuss the recent departure of chief executive Glen T. Senk. Investors were rattled when Urban Outfitters announced last month that Hayne was replacing the longtime creative force and that Senk had taken a job elsewhere.

Hayne's donation to Drexel's entrepreneurship center is significant: Baiada's annual out-of-pocket cash expenditures amount to about $500,000, said its executive director, Mark Loschiavo. The money will help commercialize projects hatched within the College of Media, Arts and Design, he said.

Contact staff writer Maria Panaritis at 215-854-2431 or mpanaritis@phillynews.com or @panaritism on Twitter.