The University of Chicago Magazine April 1996
Photographs from campus:
Plus items For the Record.
New York investment banker Eric Gleacher, MBA'67, has made a $15-millionchallenge grant to the University's Graduate School of Business, naming thedowntown center the Gleacher Center.
The largest gift in the GSB's history also pushed the University's Campaign forthe Next Century to nearly $615 million of its $650 million goal: the most everraised by a Chicago-area institution. (By late March that amount had grown to$622 million.)
Gleacher's gift challenges GSB alumni and friends to increase their financialsupport for the school over the next five years. Special incentives will bedesigned to encourage younger alumni to make annual contributions to theschool.
"Eric Gleacher is a remarkable individual who has made an extraordinarycommitment to education at our university," said President Hugo Sonnenschein."We will work hard to meet the challenge he has set for alumni of our GraduateSchool of Business."
Said Gleacher, "My family and I feel privileged to be able to give somethingsubstantial back to the school that provided me with the fundamentals to buildmy career."
Gleacher received his B.A. degree from Northwestern in 1962, and--after serviceas a U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant--an M.B.A. from Chicago. Joining theinvestment-banking firm of Lehman Brothers, he became a partner in 1973 andfounded the mergers and acquisitions department in 1978. In 1983, he became apartner of Morgan Stanley, and the following year was named worldwide head ofmergers and acquisitions.
In 1990, Gleacher formed his own investment-banking firm, Gleacher & Co.,which was acquired in 1995 by National Westminster Bank, one of the largestglobal-banking organizations. Gleacher is currently chair of NatWest'scommercial- and investment-banking operations in North America.
Gleacher's extensive GSB involvement includes cochairmanship of the school'scentennial campaign. In 1990, he endowed a professorship in finance at theschool.
GSB Dean Robert Hamada called Gleacher's latest gift "a milestone in the lifeof our school," and added, "Even more gratifying is that the gift comes from analumnus who has used his Chicago training to make an important mark in theworld of finance."
Located on the Chicago River's north bank, just east of Michigan Avenue, theGleacher Center houses classes for evening, weekend, and executive M.B.A.programs of the GSB and classes for the Center for Continuing Studies.Completed in 1994 at a cost of $44 million, the center is also used as aconference and training facility for companies.
In appreciation for his gift, the downtown center has been named for GSBalumnus Gleacher .