$100 Million Gift For The University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business has received a $100 million gift from Stone Ridge Holdings Group founder and CEO Ross Stevens. The gift will be used to support the Booth School’s PhD Program, which, in recognition of the gift, will be renamed the Stevens Doctoral Program.

“Thanks to Ross’s extraordinary generosity and bold vision, the Stevens Doctoral Program is poised to accelerate and broaden the impact of its scholars now and long into the future,” said Madhav Rajan, Chicago Booth dean and the George Pratt Shultz Professor of Accounting, in the university’s announcement of the gift.

Established in 1920, Booth’s PhD program was the first doctoral business program in the nation. In the 100 years since, it has been recognized as an academic leader in business research and practice, and its graduates include Nobel Prize winners, university deans, business faculty, and influential business leaders. According to the university, in those 100 years, the program has awarded only 968 degrees. Currently, the program has 150 students working in seven areas of study.

“Graduates from the first 100 years of the Booth PhD Program changed the world,” added Rajan. “It is inspiring to think about what the program can achieve in its next 100 years, building on its storied history, now amplified by Ross’s generosity.”

This gift will provide funding for enhanced student stipends, research support for data and computing, and Stevens Fellowships for the top incoming students. It will also be used to support students with personalized coaching programs in wellness, public speaking and professional development, as well as full-time mental health support.

In addition, the gift will establish an alumni mentoring initiative that will connect current PhD students with PhD alumni working in academia, government and industry. Stevens will be the initial co-chair of that program along with his co-chair, Cliff Asness, who the university described as Stevens’ “classmate, mentor, coauthor and first boss.”

“I believe that, over time, the quality of a business school’s PhDs determines the quality of its faculty, which, in turn, determines the quality of the school itself,” said Stevens. “Booth is already in an exceptionally strong position, but the students of tomorrow demand we don’t rest on our laurels today. By making Booth the unquestionable destination of choice for the very best PhD applicants, this gift adds rocket fuel to Booth’s long-term mission.”

Ross Stevens earned his BSE in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennyslvania in 1991, followed by his PhD in finance and statistics from Booth in 1996. Stevens started his career at Goldman Sachs before founding Stone Ridge in 2012, where he serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Among his other philanthropic efforts is the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance, established in 2019 at the Wharton School.