Campaign Gift from
The Marie-Josee and Henry R. Kravis Foundation
Claremont McKenna College today announced a landmark gift of $75 million from The Marie-Josee and Henry R. Kravis Foundation. In recognition of this gift, the College will designate its new signature building as The Kravis Center.
Scheduled for completion in 2010, The Kravis Center is designed by renowned architect Rafael Vi?oly and will provide a dramatic new entrance to the Claremont McKenna campus. The Kravis Center will house state-of-the-art classrooms, five of the College's 10 research institutes, faculty offices, and the Office of Admission and Financial Aid, as well as provide numerous opportunities for informal gatherings through a series of exterior terraces and a center courtyard.
"I have been the beneficiary of so much from Claremont McKenna, as a turning point in my education and in preparing me for life," Henry Kravis said. "Marie-Josee and I consider it both a responsibility and a privilege to support the College through this gift."
"The splendid new Kravis Center will become both the literal and symbolic heart of our institution, providing a dramatic gateway to the Claremont McKenna campus and the CMC experience through beautifully rendered spaces," said Claremont McKenna President Pamela Gann. "In addition, the new building reflects the College's ongoing commitment to environmentally responsible, sustainable design, and will be certified at LEED Silver designation or higher," she said.
The Kravis Foundation gift, which is unrestricted as to use, was announced just three months following the launch of The Campaign for Claremont McKenna, a five-year, $600 million capital campaign that is the largest ever undertaken by a liberal arts college. In September, the College announced the largest recorded gift to a liberal arts college of $200 million from alumnus Robert Day, Trust Company of the West founder and a CMC trustee.
"Henry's exceptional leadership once again sets a high standard for our CMC community to follow," said Harry McMahon, Chair of the Claremont McKenna College Board of Trustees and a 1975 alumnus. "The importance of the new Kravis Center has already stimulated a meaningful gift from CMC Trustees and has also provided a rallying focus for our alumni, the sort of focus which is critical to the success of our ambitious capital campaign."
Henry R. Kravis, a 1967 graduate of the College, is a member of the CMC Board of Trustees. He earned an M.B.A from Columbia University before beginning his career as vice president of Katy Industries, and later as a partner at Bear Stearns & Co. In 1976, Kravis joined with his cousin, George Roberts (CMC Class of 1966 and also a trustee of the College), and Jerome Kohlberg, to found Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Kravis has a long and distinguished partnership with Claremont McKenna. Elected to the Board of Trustees in 1987, he actively promotes leadership and education through the establishment of the Henry R. Kravis Chair in Leadership and Organizational Psychology and the Henry R. Kravis Research Chair in Leadership Studies.
He founded the Kravis Leadership Institute in 1993 to strengthen CMC's core mission of educating leaders. The Institute encompasses a strong educational program of leadership studies, a diverse research program, and the Kravis Mentoring Program. The institute also hosts national conferences, workshops, outreach programs, and a distinguished speaker series.
Kravis is founder and chairman of the New York City Investment Fund for Economic Development, former co-chair of the Partnership for New York City, co-chair of the board of advisors at Columbia University Graduate School of Business, vice-chairman, Rockefeller University, and a member of the board of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Mount Sinai Hospital. Marie-Josee Kravis, an economist and a senior fellow of the Hudson Institute, serves as president of the Museum of Modern Art and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
In 2006, Mr. and Mrs. Kravis founded The Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership, an annual prize which recognizes extraordinary accomplishments and leadership in the nonprofit sector. Recipients include Roy L. Prosterman, founder and chairman emeritus of the Rural Development Institute; Fazle Abed, founder of BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee); and The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE).
Rafael Vi?oly Architects PC http://www.rvapc.com is a critically acclaimed international practice with headquarters in New York and offices in London and Los Angeles. Driven by the conviction that the essential responsibility of architecture is to elevate the public realm, Vi?oly's work has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards and in the world's leading design publications. The Kravis Center will be the firm's third California project, following buildings at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, San Francisco.