Looking to make a list of the most notable backers of University of California, Irvine? Be sure to include the name of Donald Beall, the former Rockwell International chairman and CEO, and his family. Their influence rivals that of the Samueli and Merage families at the school.
The latest example: a just announced multimillion-dollar gift to the school’s entrepreneurial and innovation platform, UCI Applied Innovation. It brings the Beall family’s total philanthropic giving to UCI to nearly $30 million, with funds going anywhere from “the arts to business to innovation,” Chancellor Howard Gillman noted last week.
The 5-year-old technology and startup incubator, prepping for a move later this year to larger digs at UCI Research Park, is being renamed UCI Beall Applied Innovation.
Beall’s “legacy of supporting innovation and technology translation will ensure that Orange County remains responsive to developing industries and economic opportunities,” said Richard Sudek, who runs Applied Innovation and is UCI’s chief innovation officer.
An example of the heavy hitters Applied Innovation has already attracted: NXT Biomedical, a medical device incubator led by Stan Rowe, former chief scientific officer at Edwards Lifesciences Corp. NXT will be among the first residents at University Lab Partners, a 17,000-square-foot wet lab incubator/accelerator backed by the Beall Family Foundation and run in coordination with Applied Innovation.
NXT and its investment partners have pledged to fund upwards of $275 million on emerging startups.
Another area school doing well with fund-raising: Orange’s Chapman University, which this month announced plans to create an internal investment office to support its fast-growing endowment.
“Our endowment has surpassed $400 million in market value, and we expect that—barring major negative market dynamics—it will reach $500 million [by 2023],” Chapman Chief Operating Officer Harold Hewitt Jr. said in a letter to faculty and staff.
Based on “best practices among peer institutions,” the school’s board decided to open the office in support of increased endowment operations, Hewitt said. The investment office will be funded by endowment earnings rather than by Chapman’s operating budget, he noted.
The office will be headed by Dr. Janna Bersi, Chapman’s former chief financial officer, who most recently was working at California State University-Dominguez Hills. Bersi starts in July.
One of Chapman’s first and largest backers is the Argyros family. The George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics turns 20 this year, and more than 7,000 graduates carry the Argyros name, noted Dean Tom Turk.
To mark the anniversary, Chapman University is honoring Julianne and George Argyros with a dinner gala on Oct. 9. The featured guest is former President George W. Bush. George Argyros served as ambassador to Spain and Andorra during Bush’s first term.
Dinner chair for the event is alumna and trustee Lisa Argyros ’07.
