Nike Chairman Phil Knight Pledges $105 Million to Stanford University
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Nike Inc. (NKE) Chairman Phil Knight pledged $105 million to Stanford University Tuesday in what philanthropy experts said was the largest gift to a business school.
Most of the money will help build the $275 million graduate business school campus to be named after the athletic company co-founder, university officials said. The remaining $5 million will be used for faculty endowments.
"Stanford Business School was an important part of my life," Knight said in a statement. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to give back to the school and help it continue to push the boundaries of excellence in management education."
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The school plans to break ground in 2008.
Knight, who earned a master's in business administration in 1962 and launched the company that would become Nike two years later, has been a substantial contributor to the university, funding the dean's professorship, construction of the Knight Building, and donations to the athletics department. He is worth an estimated $7.3 billion, according Forbes' ranking of billionaires.
Prior to the billionaire's donation, the largest gift by an individual to a business school was $100 million real estate developer Stephen Ross pledged to the University of Michigan in 2004, experts said.
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Knight also has given substantially to his other alma mater, the University of Oregon, where he ran track for then-coach and eventual Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman. Knight wrote the largest single check to the university in 1996 when he donated $25 million to its law school, and news reports have put his total contributions to UO at more than $50 million.