The University of Toronto’s Rotman School
of Management in Ontario, Canada, has received
several recent gifts for key initiatives. The Government
of Canada has announced a CAN$26 million
(US$19.94 million) investment in the school’s
Creative Destruction Lab, a seed-stage program
for massively scalable, science-based companies.
Rotman also announced $4 million in new funding
from TD Bank Group. Some of the money will
support the TD Management Data and Analytics
Lab, a key resource for students in Rotman’s new
master of management in analytics. TD Bank also
announced financial support for the health stream
initiative at the Creative Destruction Lab, as well
as support for the research center known as Behavioural
Economics in Action at Rotman (BEAR).
The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
in Philadelphia has announced a US$25 million
gift from the AKO Foundation, an arm of AKO
Capital, which was founded by alum Nicolai Tangen.
The donation was made at the recommendation of
Tangen and his wife, Katja. The gift will spearhead
construction of a new 70,000-square-foot building
to be named Tangen Hall, which will become a
dedicated space for cross-campus student entrepreneurship
at the university.
The College of Business at Clemson University in
South Carolina has received a US$2.5 million gift
from Ben and Chari Phyfer. Of this gift, $380,000
will create the Phyfer Innovation Hub.