$45 Million Gift to Fund New Academic Center
PHILADELPHIA — Drexel University has received a $45 million gift from financier and corporate executive Bennett S. LeBow, chairman and CEO of Borders Book Group, which will go toward construction of a new academic center for the College of Business, which was named in LeBow’s honor in 1999.
Drexel President John A. Fry says the gift is the largest donation to the university from a single donor and the largest by an alumni benefactor. LeBow, who received an electrical engineering degree from Drexel in 1960 and an honorary degree in 1998, has now committed a total of $60 million to the university.
LeBow’s latest gift will support construction of a 12-story, $92 million academic center for the College of Business, replacing an outdated Matheson Hall, scheduled for demolition in summer of 2011, with the new building opening in 2014. The New York-based Robert A.M. Stern Architects and Philadelphia’s Voith & Mactavish designed the new facility.
Since LeBow’s initial $10 million gift in 1999, the business school constructed the Pearlstein Business Learning Center, designed by Philip Johnson; launched full-time, online and industry-specific MBA programs; and grew its student enrollment in size and quality.
About 70 percent of full-time faculty joined LeBow College within the past decade; and the school created five centers: Laurence A. Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship, Center for Corporate Governance, Sovereign Institute for Strategic Leadership, Center for Corporate Reputation Management, and the Krall Center for Corporate and Executive Education.
“Drexel’s College of Business is one of the best investments I ever made,” LeBow said, regarding his previous gift. “In 10 short years, the school has vaulted into the rankings of national leaders among MBA and entrepreneurship programs and is recognized for the strong experiential learning opportunities it provides to undergraduates."
LeBow College is one of fewer than 25 percent of business schools worldwide to be accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
"The hallmark of business education is experiential learning," said George P. Tsetsekos, the R. John Chapel, Jr. Dean of the LeBow College of Business. "The building will help us to better connect with the Philadelphia business communities and allow our students to learn in a setting that is less like a classroom and more like the corporate environment."
LeBow made his reputation as a turnaround specialist. Through restructuring and smart management, his Brooke Group Ltd. resuscitated enterprises in industries as wide ranging as jewelry, real estate and sports collectibles. In addition to his role at Borders, LeBow is also chairman of the board of Vector Group Ltd., a private equity firm that has focused on real estate and tobacco products.
Several U.S. business schools have been receiving gifts from grateful alumni in recent months. Henry Kravis, co-founder of the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, announced a donation of $100 million to Columbia Business School, his alma mater. Mike Farrell, CEO and president of Annaly Capital Management, a residential mortgage real estate investment trust, pledged $10 million to develop a new building for the Schools of Business at Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Wake Forest University.