KSG Receives $15M Donation

The Kennedy School of Government (KSG) announced yesterday that it had received a $15 million gift dedicated to fostering cooperation between private businesses and the public sector, marking one of the five largest donations to the school in its 27-year history.

The donation—from Goldman Sachs managing director Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani and her husband, petroleum executive Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani—will support the school’s Center for Business and Government (CBG), which will be renamed in the couple’s honor this fall.

The Mossavar-Rahmanis’ gift is the most substantial single bestowal that the school has reeled in since David T. Ellwood ’75 took over as dean last summer.

“One of the central changes going on in the world is that the public’s business is being done not only by the public sector, but also by the nonprofit and private sector,” Ellwood said. “I think that the work of the Center for Business and Government is absolutely vital and central to the mission of the Kennedy School and to advancing the public interest around the world.”

The center currently supports a wide array of research and policy projects worldwide—ranging from an effort aimed at increasing the efficiency of Ethiopian government agencies to a program that teaches applied economics to civil servants in Vietnam.

Yesterday’s gift will help the center increase its cooperation with Harvard Business School (HBS), Ellwood said. HBS and CBG have previously collaborated on research initiatives that study topics ranging from corporate social responsibility to AIDS in developing countries.

“The issues that face the world certainly span the boundaries that have traditionally existed here,” Ellwood said, adding that he has made cooperation with other Harvard schools “one of my priorities” during the first 10 months of his deanship.

Ellwood said that $10 million of the Mossavar-Rahmani’s gift will go toward the center’s endowment, providing a steady stream of revenue, while the balance will be available to expand the center’s activities and hire new faculty.

“We’re hoping that this will fund some professorships in the area of business and government, especially in the global arena,” said CBG Director John G. Ruggie.

But Ruggie added, “We just got the gift. We don’t have a specific roadmap yet.”

The donors could not be reached for comment yesterday; KSG spokesman Doug Gavel said the couple is traveling. But in a statement yesterday, the Mossavar-Rahmanis said, “We hope that the center’s programs and activities will in the future inspire graduate and also undergraduate students at Harvard to contemplate careers that alternate between the public and private sectors.”

Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani is now chairman of the privately-held Mondoil Enterprises, an oil and gas exploration company with a focus on West Africa.

He earned a master’s of public administration from the KSG in 1982—the same year that the CBG was established—and is an avid collector of 19th-century Persian art.

After posting a $5.9 million deficit in fiscal year 2002, the historically cash-strapped KSG has seen its financial fortunes brighten. The school, which cut costs and upped fundraising, posted a $1.1 million surplus for fiscal year 2004.

—Javier C. Hernandez and Daniel J. T. Schuker contributed to this story.

—Staff writer Daniel J. Hemel can be reached at hemel@fas.harvard.edu.