HK tycoon donates $350m to Harvard School of Public Health

Hong Kong tycoon Ronnie Chan, Chairman of Hang Lung Group and Hang Lung Properties, and his brother Gerald Chan, have donated $350 million to Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). It is the largest single donation the American university has ever received.

The donation is made through The Morningside Foundation, established by Chan's father T. H. Chan, the late founder of Hang Lung Group.

Harvard University will rename the school the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

On its official website Harvard said the gift is to support efforts at the School of Public Health to tackle the world's toughest health challenges.

Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health Julio Frenk said the donation will focus on four global health threats: pandemics old and new, such as malaria, Ebola, cancer, and obesity; harmful physical and social environments such as those resulting from tobacco use, gun violence, and pollution; poverty and humanitarian crises such as those stemming from war and natural disasters; and failing health care systems around the world.

Gerald Chan, director of the Morningside Foundation who received master's and doctorate degrees from HSPH in the 1970s, said his father was a "staunch supporter of education and would be pleased with the gift."

"On behalf of my mother and my brothers, I want to express how pleased we are that the legacy of our late father can be honored by this gift to HSPH," Chan said.

"He was a generous man who was a staunch supporter of education. He also wanted to support scientific research to alleviate human suffering. He would be very pleased with this gift today and all the good works that this gift will enable."