Harvard May Receive $115M for Global Health

The Ellison Medical Foundation is close to completing discussions with Harvard for a $115 million gift to establish a research center for global health monitoring and five professorships at the University, according to professors at the School of Public Health (SPH).

Details of the gift, which could be the largest in Harvard’s history, have emerged recently after Saltonstall Professor of Population Policy Christopher J.L. Murray, director of the Harvard Initiative for Global Health (HIGH), spoke about the gift during a closed SPH faculty meeting on May 19.

Murray has been negotiating with the Ellison Medical Foundation since last summer, according to professors familiar with the gift. The philanthropic foundation was established by billionaire Larry Ellison, CEO of the software giant Oracle, who met with Murray and University President Lawrence H. Summers in March.

One professor who was at the faculty meeting said that Murray indicated the foundation would donate more in the future if they were happy with research funded by this gift.

Murray, a former official at the World Health Organization (WHO), published an article in the British Medical Journal last fall outlining the need for a global health monitoring organization independent of the WHO and government influences.

“The objective of this body would be to report regularly to the world on what is spent on health, what health services are delivered, and the impact of these efforts on population health,” the report states.

One professor at the faculty meeting said that the Murray’s description of the functions of the global monitoring project were similar to the blueprint sketched out in his journal article.

University officials have been tight-lipped Ellison’s potential gift and its uses, stating that the donation had not yet been finalized and that premature discussion could jeopardize negotiations.

But professors present at the May 19 faculty meeting said that Murray seemed to be more certain about the outcome of the discussions with Ellison.

“What he said was that there were still negotiations that were not yet complete but that they were optimistic,” said one professor who was at the meeting. Murray “wouldn’t be talking about it if he wasn’t fairly certain this was going to happen.”

The professor also said Murray told faculty that Ellison wanted the entire gift to be spent within three years.

“Chris definitely said that the time period [for the money] is limited,” the professor said. “There’s more money to come if the donor is happy with how things are going.”

Murray said that Harvard negotiated for the endowed chairs so that the University would be able to recruit academics to the project, according to the professor.

“Harvard made the point that it wouldn’t be able to recruit people if there wasn’t a long-term guarantee,” he said.

Another professor at the meeting said that Murray did not provide details on how the new global health monitoring project would relate to HIGH, a University-wide initiative that officially started last fall.

Both professors spoke on condition of anonymity.

Murray could not be reached today and HIGH spokesman B.D. Colen declined to comment. Sarah Friedell, a spokeswoman for Harvard’s development office, said that she could not comment on the gift because it has not been finalized yet.

Walter Willett, who chairs the SPH nutrition department, wrote in an e-mail that the benefits of the Ellison grant for SPH will depend on how the global health monitoring project is structured.

“If this is used to set up a separate institute that draws the involvement of our faculty away from the SPH, it could have a negative impact on research and teaching at our school,” Willett wrote. “However, if it is implemented in such a way that it is well integrated with the activities of the school, and other parts of the university, it can bring new resources to international activities at the SPH that will benefit students, post docs, and faculty.”

Ellison stirred controversy in 2001 when he told the Wall Street Journal that he was going to donate $150 million to either Stanford or Harvard. No announcement of such a gift to Stanford has ever been made.

Ellison told the San Francisco Chronicle on May 8 that the Ellison Medical Foundation would be undertaking a major project with Harvard “very soon.” SPH Dean Barry R. Bloom sits on the Foundation’s scientific advisory board.

—Staff writer May Habib can be reached at habib@fas.harvard.edu.