University of Delaware receives $71.5 million gift, the largest in its history from a couple who are alums
The gift from Robert L. Siegfried, Jr. and Kathleen Marie (Horgan) Siegfried will help fund a new building for the College of Business and Economics, a leadership institute and an endowment.
The University of Delaware has received a $71.5 million gift ― the largest in the school’s 282-year history from an individual family ― from a couple who are alumni and want to credit the school for their success in the financial sector.
The gift from Robert L. Siegfried, Jr. and Kathleen Marie (Horgan) Siegfried, who split their time between Utah and Wilmington, will go toward a new building for the College of Business and Economics ― which will be named Siegfried Hall. It also will fund a leadership and free enterprise institute and an endowment to maintain both, the university announced Monday.
“This gift really signals a transformative moment for both the University of Delaware and Lerner College of Business & Economics,” said Dennis Assanis, president of the state’s flagship university. “They want to give back to their alma mater. They feel the University of Delaware has changed their lives. They want to credit their education for ... the success they’ve had.”
The university’s prior largest gifts from an individual family were $25 million, making the Siegfrieds’ contribution nearly three times as large, Assanis said. According to a list of the largest gifts to U.S. business schools published by Poets & Quants in September 2023, it places among the top 25.
Assanis said he has been working with the Siegfrieds since he arrived as president nearly nine years ago and Siegfried chaired the business college’s advisory board.
Previously, the couple had given $6 million to the college, creating a youth leadership initiative for students in grades eight through 12 and a fellows program for undergraduate student leaders, the university said. They started their philanthropy with a $25 gift in 1985.
Robert Siegfried, who got his bachelor’s in economics from the university in 1981 and is a certified public accountant, is founder and CEO of the Siegfried Group LLP, a business-management consulting firm that works with financial executives on finance and accounting projects.
It was once a small firm based in Wilmington that now has 18 offices around the country, including one in Philadelphia. He met his wife, a 1985 alumna, at the university during a football tailgate, according to the university.
“My time at UD — my incredible professors, the many unique experiences inside and outside the classroom, my vibrant network of friends and colleagues — helped to make me who I am today,” Rob Siegfried said in a statement. “To be able to share our success with the business students of tomorrow is an incredible honor.”
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The new institute, the university said, will focus on “studying the critical role basic principles of limited government, rule of law, and free enterprise play in supporting individual freedom and leadership.”
“These basic principles,” the Siegfrieds said in a statement, “are pivotal to free enterprise and align with the foundational values of the United States. The institute will seek to leverage these principles and values to enrich the lives of individuals, their families, and their communities, as well as benefit our national interest.”
University leaders are hopeful that the Siegfrieds’ gift will inspire others to give toward raising the rest of the money for the new building, which Assanis estimates will cost $100 million to $120 million. He said $45 million of the Siegfrieds’ gift will be used for the building, $5 million for the institute and the remainder to create an endowment to maintain both.
“This is going to ignite a campaign to raise money from others in the Lerner community,” Assanis said.
The university plans to begin designing the building this spring, with plans to start construction by 2028 and opening it by 2030, said Oliver Yao, dean of the college of business and economics. The location for the building hasn’t been announced.
The business and economics college enrolls about 4,200 students ― 3,400 undergraduates and 800 graduate students, Yao said. Overall, the university lists total enrollment of about 24,400.
Among the plans for the building are a center for student advising and career services, instructional computing labs, a café to be run by students, an auditorium, and student meeting spaces that will foster the use of technology for team projects and interdisciplinary research, university officials said.
The gift comes at a time when higher education has been under scrutiny by the federal government, which has been critical of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and plans to cut research funding from the National Institutes of Health.
The University of Delaware was one of 45 colleges that the U.S. Department of Education said Friday it would investigate for alleged racial discrimination.
“It’s really a tremendous psychological boost,” Assanis said. “It really feels like our long-term efforts are being rewarded.”