Tech Mogul Mulling Which University Will Receive $150-Million Donation

By MEG SOMMERFELD

Larry Ellison, the billionaire chairman of the Oracle corporation, says he wants to give $150-million to create a university center focused on politics, economics, and technology.

Now he just needs to figure out which institution will make the best use of his money.

At least two institutions are involved in a competition for the money: Stanford University and Harvard University.

Officials at Stanford and Harvard confirm that they have talked to Mr. Ellison about his interest in making the gift, but add that he has not told them when he would make a final decision.

“Stanford is well positioned to do what Mr. Ellison wants to do,” says John Ford, the university’s vice president for development. “What we have been talking about is a program that would bring the very best students from around the world to [study] the growth of technology and technology companies, and what the ingredients are that go into the success of those companies.” Mr. Ford said that such a graduate-level degree program would bring together faculty members in a range of disciplines, including economics, political science, business, law, and engineering.

Andrew Tiedemann, a spokesman for the alumni-affairs and development office at Harvard University, described discussions about such a gift as very preliminary, and noted that the university had not submitted a written proposal, nor had it discussed a specific gift amount with Mr. Ellison. “We do not see ourselves as being in any sort of competition with Stanford University,” he said.

“We have had one discussion with Mr. Ellison and we are very interested in continuing our conversations with him,” he added. “We are simply trying to explore Mr. Ellison’s philanthropic interests to see if there is a mutually beneficial project that we could work on.”

Mr. Ellison, 56, never graduated from college, but spent two years as a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and two semesters at the University of Chicago. He founded the Oracle corporation, in Redwood City, Calif., in 1977. Oracle makes software to help corporations manage their businesses.

In 1997, Mr. Ellison created the Ellison Medical Foundation, in Bethesda, Md., to support research on infectious diseases and on aging. He has pledged $250-million to the foundation over the next five years, and the foundation has given away approximately $70-million since its inception.

Mr. Ellison owns 24.2 percent of the shares in Oracle, currently worth about $22.4-billion.