Wharton Receives Largest Gift Ever

According to a Wharton press release, Marc J. Rowan and Carolyn Rowan have pledged $50 million to the Wharton School to entice and keep world-class faculty and provide funding for the University of Pennsylvania’s economic policy program, Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM). Poets & Quants reports that this pledge is part of Wharton’s More Than Ever fundraising campaign, which has already raised $679,976,855 (68%) toward its goal of $1 billion. The campaign began in 2013, and will run through 2021.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Rowan are Wharton alumni, and Mr. Rowan serves as chair of Wharton’s Board of Overseers, is a Penn Trustee, and is co-chair of the More Than Ever campaign.

The gift will allow Wharton to recruit three Rowan Distinguished Professors, who are world-renowned leaders in their disciplines. They are expected to serve as inspiration to students and faculty and make connections between academic and business worlds. Wharton will also select several Rowan Fellows for five-year terms to acknowledge and aid Wharton’s most distinguished faculty in their pursuit of innovative research and teaching.

Mr. Rowan credits his success to the Wharton faculty’s commitment to cutting-edge business education. This is not the Rowan’s first gift to Wharton and UPenn. Besides supporting Wharton, they have donated to the Institute of Contemporary art, the football program, and Penn Medicine’s Basser Center for BRCA, among others. He stated, “Carolyn and I are honored to join the vision of the Wharton community and to bring the School’s outstanding students face to face with the most important thinkers of our time. As top Wharton researches advance and shape their fields, they transform the lives of their students, preparing them to make a difference in the business world and beyond.”

Marc J. Rowan is a co-founder and Senior Managing Director of Apollo Global Management, LLC, a leading alternative asset manager concentrating on contrarian and value-oriented investments using private equity, credit-oriented capital markets, insurance, and real estate. Mr. Rowan graduated Summa Cum Laude from Wharton with a BS and an MBA in Finance.

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