Tuck Receives Anonymous $52.1M Gift to Fund ‘Health, Wealth & Sustainability’ Summit

Dartmouth Tuck has received the largest gift in its history: $52 million to endow a recurring summit focused on health, wealth, and sustainability. Laura DeCapua Photography

Sustainability is the single biggest trend in business schools right now, and it’s not particularly close. The latest huge investment in the space was announced today (July 7) at Dartmouth College, where the Tuck School of Business has received the biggest gift in its history for the purpose of establishing a recurring summit on the health, wealth, and sustainability of people and the planet in the 21st century.

The anonymous $52.1 million pledge will endow a recurring summit that convenes global leaders from the private and public sectors, the school announced, including academic researchers and students, with the goal of inspiring action.

“This historic gift will have an enduring and far-reaching impact, not only at Tuck and Dartmouth, but in organizations and communities throughout the world,” Tuck Dean Matthew J. Slaughter says. “The wickedest challenges facing our world need new solutions informed by new ways of thinking. This summit will be a powerful and lasting demonstration of our school’s mission to prepare wise, decisive leaders who better the world through business.”

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY INITIATIVE

Everywhere you turn in graduate business education in the United States and Europe today, sustainability is the lodestar. Major new investments from deep-pocketed alumni are a reflection of not only demand by students and the drive and growing expertise of faculty, but, critically, the demands of a shifting business culture. New degree programs are abundant; the ranks of schools that weave sustainability into their entire curriculum are growing.

At Dartmouth Tuck, the major anonymous gift announced today will instantly make the school a leader in the space. The summit “will draw on the breadth of knowledge and collaborative spirit that pervades the Dartmouth community,” according to a school statement. “Helping guide the Dartmouth Summit on Health, Wealth, and Sustainability will be the expertise of a faculty council,” with initial representation by such Tuck faculty as Ron Adner, the Nathaniel D’1906 and Martha E. Leverone Memorial Professor of Business Administration, a scholar in the areas of strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship; and Clinical Professor Lindsey Leininger, whose research lies at the intersection of health care, data analytics, and public policy. Leininger was recently appointed faculty director of the Tuck Center for Health Care.

The new initiative will be interdisciplinary, with council representation from the faculty of Arts & Sciences as well as Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, Thayer School of Engineering, Guarini Schools of Graduate and Advanced Studies, Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society, Rockefeller Center for Public Policy, and John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding.

TUCK CAMPAIGN SURPASSES $317M RAISED SINCE 2018

The $52.1M gift brings The Tuck Difference campaign total to over $317 million. Announced in 2018 with a goal of $250 million, Tuck has exceeded its campaign targets thanks to combined participation by more than 81% of its alumni.

The new forum “will present an opportunity for participants to learn from and alongside each other as they develop new ways to solve forward-looking problems,” the school announced. “Summit topics will explore the intersecting roles of public policy, health care, climate change, politics, and finance in addressing global challenges. Planning for the inaugural summit is underway, with details to be announced in the new academic year.”

“The summit reflects the donor’s strong belief in the transformative power of scholarship at Dartmouth and its application within and beyond the classroom,” says Punam Keller, the Charles Henry Jones Third Century Professor of Management and faculty director of the Tuck Center for Business, Government and Society, who helped secure the gift while serving as Associate Dean for Advancement and Tuck-Dartmouth Programs. “The urgency of these challenges is apparent, and The Dartmouth Summit for Health, Wealth, and Sustainability has tremendous potential to incubate creative and much-needed solutions.”

Adds Dartmouth President Philip J. Hanlon: “Complex challenges can only be solved by harnessing the full dynamism and creativity present throughout, and beyond, our campus community. This summit will galvanize a global network of accomplished scholars and leaders committed to building a better world.”

DON’T MISS FOR A B-SCHOOL THAT IS ALREADY A LEADER IN THE SPACE, A NEW MAJOR INVESTMENT IN SUSTAINABILITY and OVERWHELMING DEMAND: OXFORD HIT BY TSUNAMI OF APPS FOR NEW SUSTAINABILITY MASTER’S

Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below.