[WSJ.com] SC Johnson CEO Gives $150 Million to Cornell's Business College

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Cornell University’s recently revamped college of business is getting a new name, thanks to a benefactor with old ties to the school.

H. Fisk Johnson, the chairman and chief executive of SC Johnson in Racine, Wis., is giving $150 million to the Cornell College of Business, which will be renamed the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.

The Ithaca, N.Y., university is expected to make the announcement Saturday after a meeting of its board of trustees. Mr. Johnson’s donation is the largest single gift to Cornell’s Ithaca campus, according to the university. The university also has a medical school and tech campus in New York City.

Mr. Johnson is the fifth generation of his family to run privately held SC Johnson, which makes household products such as Windex, Drano and Ziploc. He has five degrees from Cornell, including a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and physics earned in 1979, and a Ph.D. in physics awarded in 1986.

His grandfather, parents and siblings also attended Cornell; Mr. Johnson said he now has a nephew enrolled as well.

Previous gifts made by Johnson family members have funded the university’s art museum, the graduate school of management and a center for birds and biodiversity, among other things.

“The combined business program was at a really critical inflection point right now,” Mr. Fisk said in an interview Friday, noting that there was controversy among students, staff and alumni when Cornell announced plans in January 2016 to put the undergraduate business school, hotel-management school and graduate business school under one umbrella.

Each of the three schools that feed into the business college has its own unique identity and traditions, said Cornell’s interim President Hunter R. Rawlings III, and that led to “anxiety, worry and consternation.”

He said the $150 million gift is an expression of confidence in the new entity.

Mr. Johnson said the gift would create momentum for the three schools that make up the business college “and hopefully propel them into the top, top tier of business programs in the world.”

The gift will immediately boost the endowment of Cornell’s business programs, which combined currently stand at $426 million. Overall, Cornell’s endowment closed out the year ended June 30, 2016, at $6.1 billion.

The donation includes a matching portion; the Johnson family will provide an extra $25 for every $75 raised by others, up to $50 million. If completely realized, Cornell would raise $300 million.

Mr. Johnson’s gift includes some funds for a scholarship program, which would offer undergraduate business and hotel students financial aid, summer internships and even mentoring opportunities with SC Johnson executives.

miss不忘初心

Really nice to hear this great news!

Pythagoras

Cornell SC Johnson College of Business Community Celebration的视频

http://www.cornell.edu/video/cornell-sc-johnson-college-of-business-community-celebration