$50-Million Roberts Donation to New Gym: Students React

Claremont McKenna announced this morning an unrestricted gift from CMC trustee and alum George R. Roberts '66 P'93 of $50 million. 

Roberts co-founded Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (K.K.R.), a private equity firm that specializes in leveraged buyouts, with his cousin and fellow CMC alum, Henry Kravis, in 1976. Roberts also founded a non-profit based in San Francisco, CA, called REDF, whose goal is to create job opportunities through venture philanthropy. According to Forbes, his net worth is $3.7 billion as of September 2012.

Roberts' donation pushes President Gann's massive fundraising effort launched in 2008, the Campaign for CMC, past the target of raising $600 million for the school. The Campaign for CMC is the largest fundraising project ever undertaken—and now achieved—by a liberal arts college.

When President Pamela Gann announced her plans to step down as President of CMC last fall, she explained that she intended to leave, among other reasons, upon completion of the Campaign for CMC.