Kravis Gives $100 Million to Columbia Business School

[Andy Nguyen]

Henry Kravis, the billionaire co- founder of private-equity firm KKR & Co., pledged $100 million to fund expansion of Columbia Business School, the largest gift in its history.

The donation will go toward construction of the business school’s new site in the Manhattanville section of New York City, where Columbia University is developing a second campus. One of the school’s two new buildings will be named for Kravis, Columbia Business School said today in a statement.

Kravis, 66, earned a master’s in business administration from Columbia in 1969 and has previously supported the university and other educational and New York-related organizations. He and his cousin George Roberts formed KKR more than three decades ago and continue to run it.

Kravis Pledges $100 Million for Columbia Business School Campus - Bloomberg

 

[euroazn]

Why couldn't they use that money to decrease tuition :[

 

[DominiConnor]

Of all the things I might do with $10^8, a business school is so far down the list.

 

[TraderJoe]

Fordham Business School received a $25 million gift from one of their alumni two weeks ago and they renamed the Fordham Business School to Gabelli Business School. Only the Business Schools at Harvard and Stanford are still available for renaming, so if someone has $500 million in spare cash, you can try for one of these two. All the other Business Schools have already been renamed after taking multi-hundred million $ gifts from their alumni.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Does anyone know if the naming will ever expire? If not, obviously these are very good deal for the donor.

 

[myampol]

Actually, the Harvard Business School is not available for renaming.

Its official name is the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration: George F. Baker Foundation.

This is based on a 1924 gift from the founder of the firm which later became Citibank.

http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/article/1924/6/2/george-fisher-baker-gives-five-million/

George Baker literally built the entire school.

http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/buildinghbs/the-dedication.html

http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/buildinghbs/the-gift.html

Although Harvard does not choose to call the school the "Baker Business School", the Baker name is indeed pervasive there.

The library at HBS is the Baker Library.

Students who graduate in the top 5% of their class are designated as "George F. Baker Scholars", and receive their MBA degrees with "high distinction."

And so on.

Michael Y.

---------- Post added at 02:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:02 PM ----------

Looking at the Fordham website, it appears that Mr. Gabelli's $25 million gift has bought him the naming rights to only their undergraduate college of business.

Business Alumnus Gives $25 Million to Fordham

The Fordham Graduate School of Business Administration remains untagged. Presumably the price tag for renaming a Graduate business school is greater than $25mm.

---------- Post added at 02:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:14 PM ----------

How much would it be worth to you to NOT have a business school be named after someone?

How about $85 million?

That's the amount that a group of about a dozen wealthy graduates of the business school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison collectively donated, so that the school would agree to not accept a subsequent donation which would result in the school being renamed for a single person or entity.

The Wisconsin Naming Partnership

However, their non-naming deal is only good for 20 years...

 

[TraderJoe]

University of Chicago changed the name of the Business School to Booth Business School when David Booth, an alumni, gave them $300 million. I don't think Stanford will agree to change the name of the Business School because the entire university is named after the Stanford family. So if Harvard is already taken, then I guess the naming game is over and done, unless someone comes up with a really huge amount of money. I think Warren Buffet is n alumnus of Columbia and I thought that eventually it would become Buffet School of Business, but now it is going to become Kravis School of Business.

 

[myampol]

No, it only says that one of the buildings will be named for Kravis -- not the whole school.