Starr donates $15 million to St. John’s

The Starr Foundation has given St. John’s University in New York $15 million, which will be used to establish the Maurice R. Greenberg Leadership Initiative at the university’s School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science, St. John’s announced Thursday.

The gift is the largest donation in the university’s history, according to a St. John’s statement.

The university said that the donation “consists of several strategic funds that will expand academic programs, enhance teaching and learning activities and risk industry focused professional programs to attract the best and brightest students from around the globe to pursue academic studies and careers in the insurance industry.”

Fifty percent of the total endowment fund will be used for student scholarship awards, 33% will go toward faculty support and 17% will be allocated for the leadership endowment.

“Over the years that I have been in the insurance industry, one of the important issues was to recruit intelligent people who were devoted to careers in the profession,” Mr. Greenberg, chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr & Co. Inc. and chairman of the Starr Foundation, said in the statement. “Many of the candidates we saw were from the St. John’s School of Risk Management. These candidates were more mature, focused and devoted to making a career in the insurance industry, and in most instances, making a significant contribution to that end.”