College of Business receives $150 million naming gift

“The College of Business is a very special place to me,” says alumnus Larry Gies (center), founder, president and CEO of Chicago-based Madison Industries. (Image courtesy of UI College of Business)

The UI College of Business will become known as the Gies College of Business after an unprecedented investment from a distinguished alumni couple. The $150 million naming gift will accelerate the College’s progress toward recognition as the best and most innovative business school in the nation.

Larry Gies, ’88 BUS, and his wife, Beth, ’89 ACES, anticipate the gift will exert an immediate and lasting influence on current and future Illinois undergraduates pursuing business degrees. “The College of Business is a very special place to me,” says Larry Gies, founder, president and CEO of Chicago-based Madison Industries, one of the world’s largest privately held companies. “It was on the Illinois campus that I developed a foundation for success. This investment is about the students and what we can become together—the greatest business school on earth.”

UI holds similar aspirations. “The gift is the result of strong confidence in the excellence of our students, the innovative spirit of our faculty and staff, and the vision and determination to make the Gies College of Business the best undergraduate business college in the country,” says UI College of Business Dean Jeffrey R. Brown.

The investment will grow and strengthen such key College of Business initiatives as: delivering undergraduate excellence; creating exceptional graduate programs; expanding the boundaries of theoretical and applied business knowledge; and deploying technology to democratize education.

“This investment makes a bold statement about the impact the Gies College of Business will have on our campus and beyond,” says UI Chancellor Robert J. Jones. “A gift of this size will allow us to significantly increase our investment in students, faculty and world-class programs, and solidify our distinction as a global innovator in business. Signature gifts such as this demonstrate the transformational impact our alumni have on the University and the world.”

“We are incredibly grateful and proud to have two successful UI graduates reinvest in the very place where their entrepreneurial journey began,” says Brown. “This ranks among the largest gifts to any business school in U.S. history.”

Source: UI College of Business