Hedge-Fund Chief Kenneth Griffin Gives Harvard $150-Million
February 20, 2014 | Read Time: 1 minute
Billionaire investor Kenneth C. Griffin has pledged $150-million to Harvard College, with most of the money going toward undergraduate financial aid, The New York Times and The Boston Globe report.
Mr. Griffin, a 1989 Harvard alumnus, got his start in finance making trades from his dorm room and founded Chicago-based investment fund Citadel a year after graduating. About $140-million of the gift will be used to create 200 Griffin scholarships and provide matching funds for an additional aid program benefiting 600 students. The remaining $10-million will endow a business-school professorship.
Harvard is 10 years into an ambitious expansion of financial aid that now sees 20 percent of undergraduates pay no tuition and another 60 percent pay an average of $12,000 a year, one-fifth of the full cost. The institution is renaming its aid office for Mr. Griffin in honor of the gift.
