$20 million donation from BlackRock executive Raj Rao and Anjuli Rao redefines LBS global reach

A $20 million philanthropic gift from New York–based financier Raj Rao and his wife, Anjuli Rao, is placing London Business School at the center of a growing transatlantic conversation about how global capital, elite education, and strategic giving intersect to shape the next generation of business leadership.

Announced June 8, the Raos’ contribution—one of the largest in the school’s history—reflects not only a deep personal allegiance to their alma mater but also the increasingly prominent role that U.S.-anchored wealth plays in global academic philanthropy.

Raj Rao, a founding partner of Global Infrastructure Partners and now a senior leader within BlackRock following its acquisition of GIP, operates at the highest levels of American finance.

From that vantage point, the couple’s gift signals how internationally educated executives are directing American-earned capital back into institutions that shaped their global trajectories.

The $20 million donation will establish London Business School’s first endowed research fund, alongside a named faculty chair and a scholarship program targeting top MBA and Masters in Finance students.

In a move that underscores the scale and permanence of the contribution, the school will also rename its central Plowden Building as the Anjuli and Raj Rao Building, embedding their legacy in the campus’s physical and intellectual core.

While the institution itself is based in London, the gift’s implications extend firmly into the United States. Raj Rao’s role within BlackRock—one of the most influential asset managers in the world—places him at the nexus of global infrastructure investment, energy transition financing, and institutional capital flows.

His career, spanning Credit Suisse, Barclays, and ultimately the leadership of GIP, has been largely shaped by U.S. markets and dealmaking ecosystems. That trajectory mirrors a broader pattern: internationally trained executives leveraging American financial platforms to build wealth at scale, and then redistributing that capital through philanthropy that retains a global footprint.

Anjuli Rao’s career likewise carries a transatlantic dimension. After her time at London Business School, she spent more than a decade at Citigroup in London, advising multinational corporations on mergers, acquisitions, and capital strategies—work deeply intertwined with U.S. financial institutions and global capital markets.

Her continued engagement with philanthropy, including ties to organizations with American affiliations such as the American Society of the Royal Academy of Music, reinforces the couple’s positioning within a network of cross-border influence that blends finance, culture, and education.

Their latest gift arrives at a moment when business schools are increasingly competing for philanthropic capital to fund research, faculty, and access initiatives. In the United States, elite institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton have long relied on large-scale endowments fueled by alumni wealth generated in finance and technology.

London Business School, while globally ranked, has historically operated with a smaller endowment base, making gifts of this magnitude particularly consequential. The Raos’ contribution helps close that gap, enabling the school to compete more aggressively for academic talent and to expand scholarship access in a way that mirrors American models of donor-driven institutional growth.

The structure of the gift reflects that influence. Endowed chairs and research funds are hallmarks of U.S. academic philanthropy, designed to provide perpetual funding streams that insulate institutions from economic cycles while elevating their intellectual output.

By introducing its first endowed research fund, London Business School is adopting a model long standard across top U.S. universities, where donor capital underwrites not only teaching but also the production of ideas that shape policy, markets, and corporate strategy.

For students, particularly those aiming to enter U.S. finance or multinational firms, the scholarship component carries immediate significance.

Access to top-tier business education remains tightly linked to career mobility in industries centered in New York and other American financial hubs. By funding scholarships for high-performing candidates, the Raos are effectively investing in a pipeline of globally trained leaders who are likely to circulate through U.S. institutions, firms, and capital markets.

The couple’s ongoing engagement with U.S.-based nonprofit and governance organizations further reinforces this ecosystem. Raj Rao serves on the board of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, a New York-based nonprofit focused on diversifying talent pipelines in finance and corporate leadership, as well as on the board of the Asia Society, a prominent institution shaping dialogue between the United States and Asia.

These roles situate him within a broader philanthropic architecture that blends education, opportunity, and global connectivity—themes that are echoed in the design of the LBS gift.

Institutionally, the donation also aligns with London Business School’s “Forever Forward” campaign, an effort to expand its global influence at a time when business education is being reshaped by geopolitical shifts, technological disruption, and evolving expectations around leadership.

Dean Sergei Guriev described the gift as a catalyst for strengthening the school’s ability to attract top faculty and produce research with real-world impact—an ambition that closely mirrors the mission statements of leading U.S. business schools.

Yet beyond its institutional impact, the gift tells a more personal story about the globalization of opportunity and the enduring influence of educational experiences.

Both Anjuli and Raj Rao arrived at London Business School after early careers in India, seeking exposure to a broader international network. Their subsequent rise in global finance—culminating in leadership roles closely tied to U.S. capital markets—illustrates how elite education can serve as a bridge between emerging-market talent and Western financial power centers.

Their decision to give back at this scale reflects a philanthropic philosophy increasingly common among globally mobile executives: investing not just in national institutions, but in the cross-border ecosystems that enabled their success. In that sense, the Raos’ gift is as much about reinforcing a model of global leadership as it is about supporting a single institution.

As American wealth continues to shape philanthropic landscapes far beyond U.S. borders, gifts like this one highlight a shift in how influence is exercised. Rather than concentrating solely on domestic universities or causes, donors with international careers are directing resources toward institutions that operate as global convening points—places where future leaders are trained to navigate interconnected markets and challenges.

With their names now set to anchor one of London Business School’s central buildings, Anjuli and Raj Rao are leaving more than a financial imprint.

They are reinforcing a transatlantic narrative of ambition, mobility, and responsibility—one in which American-earned capital helps sustain global institutions that, in turn, continue to feed talent back into the very systems where that wealth was created.