A UC Berkeley alumnus was honored Monday for his $15 million donation to the campus — a gift that will help finance the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive’s new building campaign and create a new endowed faculty chair.
In a campus event Monday, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau announced that $14 million of alumnus and Hong Kong businessman David Woo’s donation will be contributed toward the building, which is expected to open in 2015 on the corner of Oxford and Center streets.
The museum has raised $80 million in commitments for the new building — Woo’s donation included — and hopes to raise $100 million total, according to Peter Cavagnaro, spokesperson for BAM/PFA.
“The $14 million gift is a tremendous boost to our project at a critical juncture in the campaign,” Cavagnaro said in an email. “It won’t be used to fund new projects (or) endeavors.”
The other $1 million will be used for an endowed faculty chair in the College of Environmental Design, from which Woo graduated, according to Jose Rodriguez, campus endowment campaign spokesperson. The amount will be matched by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
The faculty chair holder is expected to be named at the start of the 2012-13 academic year, Rodriguez said in an email.
Woo, now head of the Hong Kong-based Woo Hon Fai Holdings, helped to design BAM/PFA building upon his graduation in 1967. The current museum building, located on Bancroft Way, will be named after his father, Woo Hon Fai.
Betsy Vincent covers academics and administration.
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Yo, giving back is good, but some questions remain and answering them would help the readers put this particular story in perspective.
1) how much is this guy worth?
2) what is the extent of his philanthropy (in CA and Hong Kong).
3) what is happening to the building after the Museum moves out of it?
To be fair, Woo is under no obligation to make this donation, and we
should be happy that someone is stepping up with some $ that otherwise would becoming from tuition or the taxpayer. OTOH, given this guy’s resources and personal connection to the existing building, the donation and attendant naming opportunity appear to be mostly self-interested. Answers to the questions above would be enlightening in this regard.
http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/12/19/hong-kong-businessman-honors-father-woo-hon-fai-with-major-gift-to-uc-berkeley/
“During his career, Woo Hon Fai was the founding chairman of the Hong
Kong Stock Exchange, president of the Gold and Silver Exchange Society
of Hong Kong, deputy chairman of the Hong Kong Commodity Exchange and
vice chairman of the Hong Kong Real Estate Association. The respected
businessman was made a commander of the Order of the British Empire by
Queen Elizabeth before his passing more than 25 years ago.”
How does DailyCal not mention that his father was filthy rich and
dominated the Hong Kong business scene? Being less forthcoming than UC
itself makes the DC look really lazy!
It would be interesting to know how the 40 million dollar seismic retrofit of the current museum was declared to be insufficient within a year of being completed and after the City and University came up with an idea to have a hotel, conference center and museum at the location on Center Street between Oxford and Shattuck.
That should be 4 million dollar seismic retrofit.
http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2000/12/01_bam.html