Harvard Business School’s MBA program received a $10-million boost Monday. The family of alum William Connell made its second double-digit donation, establishing the Margot and William F. Connell Family MBA Program Innovation Fund.
The financing will support curriculum innovation, and will focus primarily on the second year of the School’s program, according to a press release.
The Connell family first donated $10 million to the school shortly after William passed away in August 2001. Earlier that same year, Connell received Harvard Business School’s Alumni Achievement Award, the highest recognition the School can bestow upon a graduate.
Connell, a long-time resident of Swampscott, Mass., was the founding chairman and CEO of Boston-based Connell Limited Partnership, a family-owned group of manufacturing companies doing business primarily in the automotive, energy, mining, construction and agricultural sectors. He graduated from Boston College in 1959, and received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1963.
The gift was made in honor of Connell’s 50th Harvard Business School reunion, which also coincided with his son Terry’s graduation from the program this year.
Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria said in a release that the family’s previous gift helped launch the School’s Leadership Initiative, “which has helped [their] faculty undertake research and course development in this field.” Nohria notes the new funding will allow the School to enhance its second-year curriculum and “make it a deeper, more cohesive and more innovative experience that will have a life-long impact on [their] students.”
The School referenced a prior interview with Connell in which he said:
I’ve never forgotten that every Sunday my father gave whatever he could to the church. At the same time, I’ve tried to spread the word that by providing people with jobs and security, businesses bestow on society one of its greatest benefits.
And now, in his memory, his family is helping him do just that.
