Henry Kravis, Business ’69, announced Tuesday morning that he will donate $100 million to Columbia’s Graduate School of Business, the biggest donation in the school’s history. The funds will be used to construct one of two buildings that will house the Business School when it moves to the University’s planned Manhattanville campus in West Harlem.
The Business School has dealt with insufficient and impractical space for years, Kravis said, announcing the gift alongside University President Lee Bollinger and Business School Dean Glenn Hubbard at a morning press conference at Uptown Grand, a restaurant in Harlem.
“My father taught me a long time ago how important it is to give back to the community, and this means so much to me to give back to the school that has done so much for me and city who’s done so much for me,” Kravis said.
Kravis, who grew up in Tulsa, Okla., and now serves as co-chair of the Business School’s Board of Overseers, founded the asset management firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. in 1976. In his speech, Kravis joked that the company is doing “reasonably well,” with $55 billion in assets under management.
It seems like appropriate timing for Kravis. KKR went public this July, reportedly netting Kravis about $800 million. At the same time, the Business School was facing what Hubbard described as the “enormous practical challenge” of financing its move to Manhattanville.
This isn’t the first time Kravis has given back to the Business School—he donated $10 million in 2006—but it is by far his largest contribution. The University said that one of the school’s new buildings will be named after Kravis.
In an interview, Kravis said that the layout of the school’s current space in Uris Hall makes it difficult to hold breakout sessions and small classes. He said that he has pushed Hubbard to imagine a new facility that would be able to adapt to new technologies and ways of teaching, and added that he will remain involved as the school looks for an architect.
“I used to pray the teacher wouldn’t call on me, and in most big lecture halls, the professor doesn’t call on you,” Kravis said. “When I went to school, business was all about a professor standing and lecturing. Now, business is all about, ‘I want to know your thoughts—challenge me.’ You have to have flexibility so you can move walls, have small rooms, big rooms,” Kravis said.
Hubbard agreed, adding that his goal is to create more space that students and faculty could share. “We’d like to have space where faculty aren’t separate from students. Lots of businesspeople come in to teach and we have nowhere to put them,” he said.
The current site plan shows that the Business School’s new buildings will be located west of Broadway between 130th and 131st streets.
Since the Business School will be one of the first residents of the Manhattanville campus, it will serve as an experiment in how the different schools and departments will interact once they begin moving away from the Morningside campus.
“The big question is, how do we make the transition of the Business School part of the growth of the University? There are connections with economics, psychology, obviously law, but many more,” Bollinger said. “That part I want to keep thinking through—the interconnectedness with Mind, Brain, Behavior and SIPA [School of International and Public Affairs], which will be right across the street.”
Senior Executive Vice President Robert Kasdin said this gift creates momentum for funding the Manhattanville campus.
“President Bollinger has said that we will fund the new campus through the generosity of our donors, and this leadership by Mr. Kravis should encourage others to step forward,” Kasdin said.
Columbia received the go-ahead for the Manhattanville expansion in June, and the only potential remaining challenge is an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court by property holdouts Nick Sprayregen, Gurnam Singh, and Parminder Kaur, which experts say is unlikely to be heard.
“It [the gift] reinforces among potential donors that Columbia’s new campus is both crucially important and will be built,” Kasdin said.
“Obviously this is going to mean a lot for students coming in,” said Sharon Joseph, Business ’97, who founded the bowling alley Harlem Lanes. “I think it will allow the school to reach more people. The great thing about Columbia is that they try to make an impact in the Harlem community by supporting entrepreneurs, and that should allow them to continue.”
Sam Levin contributed reporting.
COMMENTS
Comments will be moderated in accordance with our comment policy