Harvard Business School To Construct New Executive Education Center
Harvard Business School broke ground on its campus for the construction of a new Executive Education facility—the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center—on Thursday, April 24, 2014. The ceremony included remarks by Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust, HBS Dean Nitin Nohria, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao (MBA 1979), Deputy Chairman of Foremost Group Angela Chao (AB 1994; MBA 2001), Former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), and the Honorable Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the United States.
The Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center, a 90,000-square-foot, four-story structure that will contain meeting rooms, office and dining facilities as well as classrooms, is the result of a $40 million gift from a Dr. James Si-Cheng Chao and Family Foundation. This generous gift was given in tribute to the life and legacy of the late Ruth Mulan Chu Chao, beloved matriarch of this most prominent and accomplished Chinese-American family.
“It is fitting that this campus will have a building bearing the name of Ruth Mulan Chu Chao,” noted Harvard President Drew Faust. “What happens inside this building—the exchange of ideas, the transfer of knowledge, the broadening of minds—will be a living tribute to those things she and her husband held so dear and passed on to their daughters.”
This gift was made on April 12, 2012 during the 50th anniversary celebration of the admission of women to Harvard’s two-year MBA program and the 375th anniversary of Harvard University. It will be the first building named after a woman on the Harvard campus and the first building named after an American of Chinese descent. As part of the gift, the Chao family has also endowed the Ruth Mulan Chu and James S. C. Chao Family Fellowship Fund to outstanding students in need.
