{"id":17627,"date":"2014-09-10T19:09:06","date_gmt":"2014-09-10T19:09:06","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-15T11:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:49:13","slug":"hong-kong-family-makes-largest-donation-to-harvard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=17627","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong family makes largest donation to Harvard"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of Gerald Chan, a Harvard-educated investor, is donating $350 million to the university\u2019s School of Public Health, the largest gift in the 378-year history of the U.S.\u2019s richest university. As the WSJ\u2019s Douglas Belkin reports:<\/strong><\/p>\n

China, the world\u2019s biggest exporter of foreign students to the U.S., has become a large source of donations for the Ivy League. In July, SOHO China Chief Executive Zhang Xin and her husband, Pan Shiyi, signed a $15 million gift agreement with Harvard University as part of their $100 million endowment to send underprivileged Chinese children to elite universities around the world.<\/p>\n

In 2010, Lei Zhang, the founder and managing partner of Hillhouse Capital Management, said he would give $8,888,888 to Yale University, which marked the largest gift to the Yale School of Management by a graduate of the school.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mr. Chan, born in Hong Kong, is a director of Hong Kong property developer Hang Lung Group Ltd.0010.HK -1.25%, where his brother Ronnie Chan serves as chairman. Together, they are ranked as the 17th richest in Hong Kong by Forbes in January with a net worth estimated at $3 billion.<\/em><\/p>\n

At Harvard, he pursued graduate work in radiological physics and radiobiology in the 1970s. He said he is giving the money to the School of Public Health because a teacher there brought the life sciences alive. In 1984, he pivoted to investing and two years later founded Morningside Group, a private-equity and venture investment group focused on biotech, cancer research and technology in North America, Asia and Europe. It has successful investments in such companies as cancer-therapy firm Biovex and New York-listed Chinese online entertainment portal YY.com.<\/em><\/p>\n