$100 million new gift from Larry Gies raises his giving to school to $350 million, invites alumni to double their impact
Larry Gies has never been comfortable in the spotlight, yet his name now appears on two of the most visible places at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The founder and CEO of Madison Industries has pledged $100 million to the Gies College of Business.
This time the gift comes as a challenge: he will match, dollar for dollar, the next $100 million that alumni and friends give to the college.
If they meet it, the school will gain $200 million for scholarships, student experiences, and faculty support.
The pledge brings Gies’s lifetime giving to $350 million, making him the university’s largest benefactor in its history.
It is the third time in less than a decade that he has given $100 million or more to his alma mater.
The university calls it the largest matching gift ever made to a business school, placing him among the three largest lifetime donors to any business school in the country.
“I’ve always believed the greatest impact happens when people come together around a shared purpose,” Gies said. “Every gift, at every level, can open a door for a student, support a great faculty member, or create an experience that changes someone’s life.”
He also spoke from experience. “Education is the equalizer,” he said, “and not only positively impacts the student’s life but changes the trajectory of their family forever.”
Gies grew up in Mendota, a small farm town in north-central Illinois.
His father worked at a manufacturing company and served in the U.S. Army. His mother was Dutch and had been orphaned during World War II.
When he studied accountancy at Illinois in the 1980s, tuition was $694 a semester.
At the university, he met Beth, a textiles and apparel student.
On their second date, they tutored children at the local YMCA.
That shared commitment to young people has shaped their giving ever since.
After graduating in 1988, Gies started out at the accounting firm Touche Ross, now Deloitte.
He later earned an MBA at Northwestern’s Kellogg School and turned down an offer from McKinsey.
Instead, he went to work for investor Michael Heisley, who taught him how to buy and turn around struggling companies.
In 1994, at 27, Gies set out on his own.
He borrowed $50,000 from a high school friend and maxed out ten credit cards, while Beth worked three jobs to keep the household going.
His first acquisition was a plastics molding firm in Cleveland.
Over three decades, those beginnings grew into one of the world’s largest privately held companies.
Madison Industries makes products in filtration, safety equipment, medical diagnostics, and life sciences.
This spring, its HVAC business, Madison Air, went public on the New York Stock Exchange and raised about $2.2 billion.
It was the largest U.S. industrial IPO since UPS in 1999. Forbes now ranks Gies on the Forbes 400 with a fortune of about $5 billion.
He made his first major gift to Illinois in 2017.
Larry and Beth Gies gave $150 million to the business school, and it remains the second-largest single gift to any business school.
When he first raised the idea at home, Beth asked whether they really had that much money and why he wanted to give it away.
The couple first asked to stay anonymous and even suggested putting other alumni’s names on the college.
The gift changed the school.
Within five years, enrollment nearly doubled, online graduate programs grew from fewer than 900 students to more than 6,000, faculty grew to more than 200, and undergraduate scholarships rose by 150 percent.
Annual giving from other donors nearly tripled.
That record gives us reason to expect this new match to draw others in.
Last year, Gies gave $100 million to Illinois Athletics in memory of his late father, Larry Gies Sr. Memorial Stadium became Gies Memorial Stadium, a name he chose so that, in his words, nobody would ever take “Memorial Stadium” off a building whose columns honor fallen Illini.
“This gift is about honoring my father, a true patriot, and every brave soul who has worn or will wear the uniform,” he said.
Away from campus, the Gies Foundation helped create the Gies Campus of Chicago Jesuit Academy, a tuition-free school for students in grades three through eight on Chicago’s West Side.
Beth tutors there every week.
Gies has also funded need-based scholarships for the children of Marines, and this year he received the Order of Lincoln, Illinois’s highest honor.
For Dean W. Brooke Elliott, the match has an impact beyond its size.
“One act of generosity can inspire another,” she said, “and suddenly a scholarship reaches a student who never imagined Gies Business was within reach.”
Gies put it more simply: “This pledge is about creating impact with my fellow alumni that will long outlast us.”