UH alumnus gives $25M to College of Business

Jay Shidler, founder and managing partner of the real estate investment firm Shidler Group, is offering $25 million to the University of Hawaii College of Business Administration.

The school would be renamed the Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The UH Board of Regents scheduled a special meeting for Wednesday to consider accepting the gift.

It would be the largest single donation made through the University of Hawaii Foundation on behalf of students and faculty.

Shidler, 60, graduated from the college in 1968 and served three years on the UH Foundation's board of trustees in the 1990s. The philanthropic Shidler Family Foundation has supported the University of Hawaii system since 1989 with $174,164 in gifts to support astronomy, research, the business school and student activities, as well as an initial gift to establish the Academy of Creative Media.

"As a University of Hawaii and College of Business Administration alumnus, I am proud to support the college in a way that will help transform it into the top rank of public business schools in our country," said Shidler in a statement. "For me, Hawaii is not only a special place in which to do business, but also a very viable place from which to conduct more geographically wide-ranging businesses."

Since forming the Shidler Group in 1972, Shidler has been directly involved in the acquisition and management of more than 2,000 properties in 40 U.S. states and Canada.

Four of the companies he founded are now listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

In Hawaii the Shidler Group owns more than 1.5 million square feet of office space, including the Davies Pacific Center, Pan Am Building, Waterfront Plaza and Pacific Business News building in Waikiki.

"Hawaii can increase its role in national and international commerce to a greater degree than many might imagine," Shidler said. "I believe having a first-rank business school here is critical to support, enhance and ensure this possibility."