Yale President Richard Levin announced yesterday that the Yale School of Management (SOM) has received its largest alumni gift ever and that it has come from an alumnus less than 10 years out from graduation. Lei Zhang MBA ‘02, GRD ‘02, the founder and managing partner of Hillhouse Capital Management, has pledged $8,888,888 to help build Yale SOM’s new campus.
Levin announced the unprecedented gift at a special event in Beijing featuring a panel discussion called “Investing in the Middle Kingdom,” in which Zhang was a participant. Zhang was joined by several other prominent SOM alumni on the panel, which was moderated by Levin and co-hosted by Yale SOM Dean Sharon Oster.
“I’m delighted to be here in Beijing with so many of our former students, including Lei,” Oster said. “His devotion to SOM is remarkable, and the entire SOM community joins me in thanking him for his wonderful support,” she continued.
Zhang’s gift will help fund construction of a new campus for the school designed by architects Foster + Partners. Approval to move forward with construction plans and drawings was granted in June 2009, but the start of actual construction is contingent upon the school’s raising sufficient funds for completion of the project.
Zhang started Hillhouse Capital Management in 2005 with an initial investment from the Yale endowment. The fund, which opened with $30 million under management, made impressive returns and attracted numerous investors under Zhang’s leadership. With $2.5 billion under management today, Hillhouse has rapidly become China’s largest independent fund.
While at SOM, Zhang worked for David Swensen at the Yale Investments Office, during which time he translated Swensen’s Pioneering Portfolio Management into Chinese. According to a release from Yale, the task required that Zhang create Chinese words for “fiduciary” and “endowment.” Today Zhang is a member of the SOM Board of Advisors and China Board of Advisors.
Zhang was raised in central China and placed first out of 100,000 students in his province for the national university entrance exam. After studying international finance at the People’s University of China, he chose Yale to earn his MBA and a master’s degree in international relations.
He chose the specific dollar amount of his gift because of the significance of the number eight in Chinese culture. The number is considered lucky throughout China, and the Chinese word for “eight” sounds similar to those for “wealth” and “fortune.”
The young Yale alumnus has said that SOM changed his life. Indeed, he named both his company and a foundation for Hillhouse Avenue, the New Haven street that runs through the SOM campus. Now, in recognition of his sizeable gift, which will provide much needed funding for construction of the architectural plan developed by Foster + Partners, the auditorium on the new campus will bear Zhang’s name, Dean Oster announced.
To learn more about Zhang’s gift, click here. For more on the plans for the new Yale SOM campus, click here.
Read the full article: Largest Alumni Gift to Date Will Help Fund Yale SOM’s New Campus