Billionaire Ken Griffin Just Made Another Massive Donation to Harvard University — Here's What His Alma Mater's Giving Him in Return Griffin donated $150 million to the school for undergraduate financial aid in 2014 — the biggest single gift for financial aid the university has ever received.
By Amanda Breen •
Harvard University, which boasts a more than $50 billion endowment, just got a little bit richer.
Billionaire Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin, who graduated from the university in 1989, donated an additional $300 million to his alma mater — and now it's naming a graduate school after him, Fox Business reported.
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Griffin's net worth is $35 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He topped Institutional Investor's 22nd annual "Rich List," which ranks the 25 highest-earning hedge fund managers based on a combination of fee earnings and gains on their personal capital, last month.
The unrestricted gift, announced on Tuesday, follows Griffin's $150 million donation to the school for undergraduate financial aid in 2014 — the biggest single gift for financial aid the university has ever received — and smaller donations to Harvard Law School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, bringing the billionaire's total donations to more than $500 million, per Fox.
In recognition of Griffin's decades of giving, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will be renamed the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, per the Harvard Gazette.
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"It has been a great pleasure to get to know Ken throughout my presidency," Harvard president Larry Bacow said, per the outlet, "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."
