Kenneth Griffin, the billionaire CEO of investment firm Citadel, is donating $300 million to Harvard University in one of the school’s largest-ever gifts.
The donation will support the school’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and its more than 40 academic departments, Harvard announced today (April 11) in a statement. In light of the gift, Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, which offers PhD and master’s degrees in more than 57 departments and programs, will be renamed after Griffin. Griffin graduated from Harvard College in 1989.
Griffin, 54, is the founder of market-making business Citadel Securities and has an estimated net worth of $34.9 billion, according to Bloomberg. He has reportedly donated more than $1 billion of his fortune to various philanthropic causes, including the University of Chicago and the American Museum of Natural History.
A prominent Republican donor, Griffin was the party’s largest individual donor from the finance industry during the 2022 midterms, contributing more than $100 million to state and federal candidates.
On social media, Harvard students had mixed reactions to the announcement, with one student writing that the newly named Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is “embarrassing,” while another criticized his significant campaign contributions.
Griffin has donated more than $500 million to Harvard
An avid art collector, Griffin has also contributed to institutions like New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum, and in 2020 purchased Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump painting for more than $100 million.
The latest Harvard donation brings Griffin’s total contributions to the school over the past four decades to more than $500 million. His previous donations have included a $150 million contribution to financial aid in 2014, Harvard’s largest-ever gift at the time, in addition to donations supporting stem cell research and Harvard’s businesses, law and education schools.
“It has been a great pleasure to get to know Ken throughout my presidency, and I am deeply and personally appreciative of the confidence he has placed in us—and in our mission—to do good in the world,” said Harvard President Larry Bacow in a statement.
Harvard’s most significant donation to date comes from Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, who in 2021 pledged $500 million over the next 15 years to go towards the study of natural and artificial intelligence.
John Paulson, co-founder of investment firm Paulson & Co, follows closely behind with his $400 million gift to Harvard in 2015. And in 2022, Hansjorg Wyss, the Swiss founder of medical device manufacturer Synthes Holding AG, donated $350 million to the school.
The largest-ever gift to higher education occured in 2018, when Michael Bloomberg pledged $1.8 billion in 2018 for student financial aid at John Hopkins University. Other university donations in the billion-dollar range include the 2022 contribution from venture capitalist John Doerr and his wife Ann to establish the School of Sustainability at Stanford and the 2006 commitment from Anil Agarwal, founder of mining company Vedanta Resources, to create Vedanta University in Orissa, India.
