Haller Foundation Presents Katz with $5 million donation

A $5 million gift from the Henry E. Haller Jr. Foundation to Pitt’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration will fund the schools’ “most critical issues.”

The foundation, based in Pittsburgh, will give the money to Katz in $1 million installments over the next five years. The dean of the business school can spend the money at his or her discretion at the end of the 2015 fall term. 

“This gift creates an opportunity to seed money into new facilities and equipment,” Delaney said. “We’re trying to make the student experience stronger.”

Haller, who passed away in March 2012, established the Henry E. Haller Jr. Foundation in 2000, along with his wife, Linda B. Haller, who is currently its executive director, the release said. Through the Haller gift, all future business school deans will hold the title Henry E. Haller Jr. Dean. 

“The Haller Foundation’s gift will advance business education at the University for years to come,” Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said in a statement. “For that, we are most grateful.”

The inaugural Henry E. Haller Jr. Dean will be John T. Delaney, current dean of the Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration, who is also retiring, according to a University press release.

“Some of these issues are related to students, faculty and programs,” he said.

The money spent on students, Delaney said, will not fund traditional scholarships. Instead, he said, it will assist with unpaid, international internships and study abroad trips.

Some of the money will also be used to “retain good faculty” if a professor at the school receives an enticing offer elsewhere, Delaney said.

The next dean of the Katz school will control most of the money. A search committee began looking for Delaney’s successor last November. Delaney, who is now transitioning out of his position as dean, said that if the changeover takes place over the summer, he will not be able to spend any of the money himself. If the search committee doesn’t find a replacement dean in the next year, however, Delaney said he may be able to begin spending the first installment. 

Regardless of how much of the money he can spend, Delaney said he would like to “prime the pump” and find other money that is currently at his discretion to start programs and projects that the Haller money can fund a year from now. Delaney said he is excited about the gift. 

“This is a great opportunity. Mr. Haller would have been proud,” he said.