Ronald O. Perelman, the Chairman and CEO of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc. and a member of the Columbia Business School Board of Overseers, has donated $100 million to Columbia Business School. The money will go towards the construction of two new buildings in Manhattanville, New York, just north of the school’s Morningside Campus, one of which will be named the Ronald O. Perelman Center for Business Innovation.
The gift is tied for the largest ever given to Columbia Business School. In 2010, Henry R. Kravis, co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and co-chair of the School’s Board of Overseers, donated $100 million to first establish a CBS presence in Manhattanville.
The buildings donated by Perelman will be designed by New York architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro and will together encompass more than 450,000 square feet.
Perelman has been a member of the Board of Overseers and generous donor to the school since 1994. “Columbia Business School has its finger on the pulse of the changing nature of business education,” he said in a statement after the donation was announced. “The School’s commitment to developing transformative business thinkers is unparalleled, and I am pleased to pledge this gift to help them prepare the next generation of global business leaders.”