(Bloomberg) -- The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign’s business school will receive $150 million -- a record gift to the state school system -- from an alumnus and his wife.
The business school will be named the Gies College of Business after the donation from Chicago businessman Larry Gies and his wife Beth, the school said Thursday in a statement.
The donation will be used for initiatives including undergraduate and graduate programs and the use of technology to democratize education, according to the statement.
“A gift of this size will allow us to significantly increase our investment in students, faculty and world-class programs, and will solidify our distinction as a global innovator in business," Robert Jones, the chancellor, said in the statement.
Gies received a degree from University of Illinois and an MBA in 1992 from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. He is the founder and CEO of Madison Industries, a privately held firm.
The university “is a very special place to me,” Gies said in the statement. “It is on this campus that I developed a foundation for success. We are honored to give back to the college that gave so much to us.”
As of June 30, The University of Illinois Foundation manages $1.6 billion of the endowment, and another $674 million is managed by the university, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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