Harvard University has received the largest single donation in its 378-year history, with a $350m pledge to support the School of Public Health by a wealthy family anchored in Hong Kong real estate. The gift from the Chan family represents more than 75 per cent of the School of Public Health’s most recent capital campaign goal, which seeks to raise $450m by 2018. Dean Julio Frenk called it a transformative donation that would boost the school’s research programmes and student aid. The gift would help it discover and promote solutions to four global health threats: pandemics, harmful physical and social environments, humanitarian crises and failing health systems, school officials said. The donation will go towards the broader university’s roughly $32bn endowment fund, the largest in the US, and its $6bn capital campaign, which ends in 2018. The Chan family, which made the donation through The Morningside Foundation based outside Boston, said it hoped to support the school as it invests in its people, ideas and infrastructure. Whereas medicine tends to focus on individual treatment, preventive public health initiatives can affect entire communities, said Gerald Chan, who graduated from Harvard’s School of Public Health in the 1970s. “If you look at the world, it has evolved in such a way that public health is needed now more ever,” he told the Financial Times, mentioning the current Ebola crisis. “If we are to be effective [at addressing global health threats], public health has to be a part of the solution.” Mr Chan said the donation was made in honour of his late father TH Chan, for whom the school will be renamed. A “self-made man”, TH Chan founded what is now one of Hong Kong’s largest real estate development companies, Hang Lung Properties. Gerald and his brother Ronnie collectively rank 17th on the Forbes list of Hong Kong’s richest, with a net worth of $3bn. Gerald Chan also reportedly owns at least $120m of Harvard Square real estate. The family has made many donations before, but Mr Chan said he and his brother wanted to make a big gift while their mother was in good health. Their family’s second-largest philanthropic endeavour was in founding Morningside College, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The School for Public Health is credited with discoveries leading to the polio vaccine and the elimination of smallpox, among other accomplishments. “We can now invest in developing the ideas and the new discoveries that will allow us to invent the future of public health,” Mr Frenk said. “It’s energising to have a donation of this size at the beginning of a campaign...It’s a vote of confidence in the university.” Mr Frenk said the donation would also help expedite the university’s new loan forgiveness programme for public health students that secure careers in underserved US communities or poor countries. The programme could be available for students graduating as early as May. Who are the Chan family? The Chan family controls Hang Lung, one of the biggest and oldest property developers in Hong Kong. It is run by Ronnie, the group’s chairman, while his brother Gerald, a former Harvard student, is a non-executive director. The company was founded by their father, Chan Tseng-Hsi, in 1960. Forbes estimated Ronnie and Gerald Chan’s joint net worth to be $3bn at the start of this year, putting them 17th on the Hong Kong rich list. Both Chan brothers studied in the US before returning to Hong Kong to work for the family businesses. Ronnie received an MBA from the University of Southern California, while Gerald completed undergraduate training in engineering at UCLA, before attaining a doctor of science degree from Harvard. Hang Lung’s Hong Kong portfolio comprises retail, commercial and residential properties, including the Standard Chartered Bank Building and the Peak Galleria – a shopping centre overlooking the city from one of its most famous tourist sites. It also has projects completed or under construction in eight mainland Chinese cities, having taken its first step into the market in 1992 with a commercial development in Shanghai. The Chan family founded Morningside Group in 1986 as a private equity and venture capital vehicle. Previous VC investments include Xiaomi, the Chinese handset maker, and taxi-ordering app Hailo, while private equity holdings include DIY retailer The Tile Shop and sports trading card company PressPass. The fund has also invested in more than 40 healthcare-related companies and made numerous education and science-related philanthropic donations in Hong Kong and China.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 09:55:12 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015