Business schools to create new scholarship

Two new scholarships will be available for business students after a family-owned, Pittsburgh-based realty company donated $1 million to Pitt.

The Howard Hanna family donated the money last week to the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration (CBA) to offer “need-based financial support” to graduate and undergraduate business students, according to a release.

Howard Hanna Jr., founder of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, is a Distinguished Alumnus of the Katz Graduate School of Business. His family members, including his son, Howard Hanna III, his daughters, Helen Casey and Annie Cestra, and five grandchildren — four of whom are Pitt graduates — all work in the management of the company in different capacities. 

University spokeswoman Cara Masset said in an email that the Hanna family’s donation is their first major scholarship gift, although the family has been a supporter of Pitt in the past. 

According to Masset, Pitt will award the scholarships as part of the admissions process without a separate application. 

“The gift is endowed, so it will provide scholarship support in perpetuity,” Masset said. “The principal amount of $1 million will be kept intact and investment income will be distributed to scholarship recipients.”

According to Masset, the endowed gift is arranged so that the investment income from $750,000 of the endowment will be used for scholarships for CBA students and the investment income from $250,000 of the endowment will be used for scholarships for Katz students. 

Hanna III, chairman and CEO of his family’s company, said in the release that Pitt has been an important cornerstone in his dad’s life, in his family and in their company. 

“His abilities allowed him to graduate from Pitt with both undergraduate and master’s degrees in business,” Hanna III said. “The Howard W. Hanna Jr. scholarship funds are a small repayment so that future generations can receive the same grounding in leadership that our father received from [Pitt].”

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article said the CBA will have $750,000 to distribute to students through the fund, while Katz will have the remaining $250,000 to award. While these allocations are correct, these amounts are simply endowments, and only the investment income will be distributed in the form of scholarships.