Jon Huntsman Sr. Receives 2014 Simon Philanthropy Prize

Billionaire industrialist Jon M. Huntsman Sr., who has poured more than $450-million of his fortune into cancer research, has been named the 2014 recipient of the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership, the Deseret News reports.

The $250,000 award, payable to the charity of the winner’s choice, is bestowed by the Philanthropy Roundtable, a network of foundations and individual and corporate donors which the late Mr. Simon, a former U.S. treasury secretary, helped establish. The award will be presented at the organization’s annual meeting in October.

A cancer survivor, Mr. Huntsman founded the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah with a $100-million pledge in 1995 and remains its chief benefactor. The Utah chemicals magnate has also made large gifts to the University of Pennsylvania and Utah State University business schools and donated $50-million to rebuilding efforts in Armenia following the devastating 1988 earthquake there.