Yale School of Management (SOM) has received a $10 million gift to help fund construction of its new campus, one of the largest gifts toward the construction effort from an individual donor, the school announced today. The funds, from Wilbur Ross YC ’59, CEO and chairman of WL Ross & Co. LLC, will be directed toward a state-of-the-art library in the new building.
In announcing the gift, Yale SOM Dean Sharon Oster called Ross “an icon in the world of restructuring and value investing” and noted that his support of the library is especially appropriate given his personal focus on the value of research in his deal making. Ross is recognized as leader in bankruptcy, restructuring and privatization services and has assisted in restructuring more than $200 billion of corporate liabilities.
Ross attended Yale as an undergraduate, but because there was no business school at Yale at the time he went on to Harvard Business School for his MBA. “Since joining the Yale SOM board, I have become convinced that the quality of both faculty and students is world class and that they deserve a campus of equal quality,” he said. Ross’s father died while he was a student at Yale, and the school provided valuable support, making this opportunity to give back especially meaningful, he added.
Ross also expressed his enthusiasm for the plans for the new campus, which were created by Foster + Partners, the architectural firm chaired by Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate Lord Norman Foster ARCH ’62. “I also am honored to be able to support Norman Foster’s brilliant design for the new facilities,” he said in a statement.
Plans for the new campus were approved by the City of New Haven Board of Alderman in March, and site preparation has begun. The library, which will feature the latest information technology in addition to quiet study space, publications collections and a librarian support facility, will be located at the front of the new business school building and close to classrooms.
For more on Ross and his $10 million gift toward the new Yale SOM campus, click here.
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