Nike chairman gives $400m to Stanford program to solve ‘global challenges’

Nike co-founder and chairman Phil Knight has donated $400 million to Stanford University, the school announced Tuesday. The Hennessey-Knight Scholars program will accept one hundred students a year, providing them a full ride to pursue otherwise highly expensive graduate, masters and doctorate degrees at the prestigious (and very expensive) Stanford. The Knight-Hennessy scholars program will be analogous to the Rhodes and Schwarzman scholarships, aiming to attract the world’s most talented graduate students to Stanford for studies across the University’s seven schools.

Phil Knight’s gift to Stanford matches the largest ever donation to a United States university, made by hedge fund manager John Paulson – who donated $400 million to Harvard just past year. The university said the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program, conceived by departing Stanford President John Hennessy, has raised $750 million in total, making it one of the world’s largest fully funded scholarship endowments.

The program is the brainchild of outgoing Stanford President John Hennessy, who approached Knight about the idea and said the billionaire businessman agreed with two conditions: that Hennessy run the program and share its name, the newspaper reported. With this gift, Knight wanted to honor Hennessy’s 16-year tenure leading Stanford and to fund an initiative of scope and scale at an institution where he was confident the graduates would go on to make a real difference.

Besides access to the house, scholars will enjoy other features unique to the program. In 2006, he returned to Stanford to take part in writing seminars at the school.

“We will bring together outstanding, courageous scholars to benefit from Stanford’s innovative educational environment, who then go on to lead governments, businesses, nonprofits and other complex organizations and develop creative solutions to effect positive change”.

“The Board of Trustees unanimously endorsed the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship and is excited about its potential”. In addition to high achievement in academics, leadership and civic commitment will be among the qualities that Stanford will seek.