By Zack Sampson and Colin A. Young, News Staff
Two trustees have jointly donated $60 million, the largest gift in Northeastern’s history, to the university’s College of Business Administration, President Joseph E. Aoun announced Wednesday.
The college will now be named for the donors, former students Richard D’Amore and Alan McKim, making the D’Amore-McKim School of Business is the first college or school at Northeastern to be named after donors.
“I really believe this is a great historic moment for us,” Aoun said in a phone interview Wednesday.
The president added that D’Amore and McKim initially did not want to have the school named after them, but he asked them to reconsider.
“I believe very strongly that with their marquee names and their leadership that they are the perfect people to name the business school because those marquee names will make us proud and inspire others to join,” Aoun said.
D’Amore graduated from Northeastern in 1976 with a business administration degree. He is the co-founder of a Waltham-based venture capital firm, according to a Northeastern statement. McKim received a master’s degree in business administration from the university in 1988, and is the founder of Clean Harbors, an environmental, energy and industrial services provider.
“I believe in making investments in winning institutions,” D’Amore said in a university statement Wednesday. “Northeastern has remarkable momentum today, and under the leadership of President Aoun, I know this is a great investment.”
McKim echoed D’Amore in the same statement, saying, “As an entrepreneur, I believe in supporting entrepreneurial institutions.”
Before the $60 million donation, the largest gift in Northeastern’s history was $20 million, according to the university.
Current business students said they hope the money is used in a number of ways, including hiring new faculty and elevating the business school’s profile.
“In the five years that I’ve been here, I think the CBA has gone from a well-respected business program to really being on the cusp of becoming one of the elite business programs in the country,” Benjamin Gibb, a senior finance and accounting major and president of the Finance and Investment Club, said in an email to The News. “I think if the money is used to attract the best professors and researchers in finance and business it could really tip us into that elite category.”
Christopher Wolfel, chief executive officer of IDEA, Northeastern’s entrepreneurial venture accelerator, said the gift could help create more classes, add accomplished faculty members and enhance the already growing entrepreneurship program at Northeastern.
“I think Northeastern will continue to grow in all areas of business but I think within a few years it will be considered the best entrepreneurial program in the country,” Wolfel, a senior at Northeastern, said.
Brittany Waitte, also a senior and president of the Northeastern University Marketing Association, said in an email that she hopes some of the money is used to help business clubs bring speakers to campus and participate in national competitions.
“In addition, renovation to the classrooms, or construction of a College of Business building would provide students and teachers with a state-of-the-art teaching facility to elevate the learning experience,” she said.
The president of Northeastern’s chapter of Pi Sigma Epsilon, a marketing, sales and management group, said he thinks the funds should also be used to support global directives.
“The best use of these funds would be for the business school to expand study abroad program resources and give students better opportunities, whether it be for co-op or taking courses, to experience different cultures and values around the world,” the president, Victor Hernandez, said in an email.
Though the D’Amore-McKim contribution is specifically for the business school, Aoun said he hopes it encourages others to donate to other areas of the university as well. McKim and D’Amore, in fact, will also be co-chairs of a new fundraising campaign for the university.
“I believe their investment in the university is going to be duplicated by others because people are inspired by such an investment,” Aoun said during the phone interview. “They realize that the whole purpose of being engaged with the university is to help the university continue to innovate. The vision of the university is bold, the vision of the university has been extremely successful and it will continue to be.”
