Two University of Chicago alumni – Amy and Richard Wallman – have made a $75 million commitment to the University of Chicago that will be used to leverage an additional $75 million for creation of 30 new endowed professorships across the institution.
“This generous commitment from the Wallmans will greatly support our world-class faculty and will accelerate the impact the University can have on the world,” said President Paul Alivisatos in the university’s announcement. “I am deeply grateful to Amy and Richard for their partnership and the ambition of their philanthropy, which will ensure that we can continue to recruit and retain the faculty who are making the most important contributions to human knowledge and society.”
Here’s how the special campaign is being set up. The Wallmans will match new commitments of $2.5 million or more with matching funds of $2.5 million. Each of the endowed professorships will be named for the donors who join the Wallmans’ challenge. The resulting cohort of faculty will be called the Wallman Society of Fellows.
According to the university, the $75 million gift is the largest donation in support of faculty chairs in its history, and it represents the Wallman’s fifth substantial gift to the institution. In 2017, the couple gave the University of Chicago Booth School of Business another $75 million gift to support student scholarships, co-curricular programming, faculty research and other priorities.
“As a member of the Board of Trustees, I have gotten a clear view of the University—its mission and leadership,” said Richard Wallman in the announcement. “Endowed professorships are instrumental in attracting eminent scholars deeply engaged in their fields, committed to making a positive impact on humanity. Growing UChicago’s cohort of endowed chairs is essential for maintaining competitiveness among peer institutions and attracting top talent in diverse fields.”
President Alivisators added, “we can look ahead to when 30 Wallman Fellows, with interests spanning the University from the humanities to molecular engineering, economics and public policy to biology and medicine, are at UChicago doing what we do best: defining new fields for knowledge that shape the world.”
After earning her MBA from Chicago Booth in 1975, Amy Wallman began her career at Ernst & Young and retired as an audit partner there in 2001. More recently she served as a director at Omnicare from 2004 to 2015. Richard Wallman graduated from Booth in 1974 and began his career with the Ford Motor Company. He served as the chief financial officer and senior vice president of Honeywell International Inc., and its predecessor AlliedSignal, from 1995 to 2003. He’s also held senior financial positions with IBM and Chrysler Corporation.
While Richard Wallman said he and his wife were extremely pleased with their previous gifts to the Univeristy of Chicago, “we are particularly excited about the lasting and beneficial impacts on society that will result from the work of the Wallman Fellows initiative.”
“We want to thank our parents for always being there for us and giving us encouragement and support,” added Amy Wallman. “They provided the foundation for us to be successful and to help enable that success in others through our philanthropy.”
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