The pledged funds are to be added to the school's endowment (the size of which is expected to double as a result) with two-thirds of the C$50m to go towards funding faculty chairs or professorships and the remaining third allocated for scholarships. Scholarship provisions have initially been earmarked for MBA students. Indeed, dean of the newly-known Smith School of Business, David Saunders, told the FT that competition for the brightest students necessitates making more MBA scholarships available.
The Smith School of Business' benefactor, Stephen Smith, is a Queen's University graduate in electrical engineering and holds a master's from the UK's LSE. He said his subsequent career path lay behind his decision to contribute to the business school rather than another part of the university:
“I see myself as a Queen’s University graduate. While I studied engineering and economics at Queen’s, I have always had a keen interest in business, and most of my career was spent in the finance and insurance industries."
Smith is the chairman, president and cofounder of First National Financial Corporation - held to be Canada’s largest non-bank lender of residential and commercial mortgages. A philanthropic relationship with his alma mater dates back to the 1990s and Smith has since helped to establish bursaries for students in economics and engineering as well as for a chair in economic policy.
“I just look forward to making this a transformational gift that is good for Queen’s University and good for the Smith School of Business to make it the leading business school and to enhance its position as the leading business school in the country,” Smith said in the Globe and Mail.
