The Sidney Kimmel Foundation has donated $110 million to Thomas Jefferson University, which will rename its medical school the Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Jefferson announced Tuesday.
The money from Sidney Kimmel, who has given away $860
million of the fortune he made in fashion, including at least $275 million in
his native city, will be used to pay for medical school scholarships, attract
top faculty, and build state-of-the-art medical school facilities, Jefferson
said.
The money arrives at a time of tumult in health care and as
Thomas Jefferson University and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital are being
reunited under a new leader, Stephen K. Klasko, who is aiming for what he calls
a "revolution in academic health care."
"This is the best time," Klasko said in an
interview. "We're going to be the Apple to Microsoft," referring to
the way Apple's innovations overwhelmed the desktop computer world.
Klasko's goal is to think "about what's going to be
obvious 10 years from now and start doing it today," he said.
And Kimmel fits right in, Klasko said.
"He made his dollars by being ahead of the curve in
fashion, by recognizing what was going to happen before we recognized what was
going to happen. It's just a natural mix," said Klasko, whose wife spent
most of her career in fashion at Vogue, making him aware of Kimmel's
reputation.
The gift deepens the 86-year-old Kimmel's philanthropic ties
to Philadelphia, where he gave $63 million to the city's biggest performing
arts center, which now bears his name. In the 1990s, Kimmel gave Jefferson $10
million for a cancer research center.
Discussions about additional gifts to Jefferson have
continued over the years, but about a year ago, Kimmel started hearing that
Klasko was bringing a new energy to Jefferson.
"When I met Steve Klasko, I was impressed with this
man. It's like getting a new manager of a ball team. You feel he's going to do
a great job," Kimmel said Tuesday at the Rittenhouse Hotel.
Kimmel, who lives with his wife, Caroline, 64, in New York
and in Johnny Carson's former Malibu, Calif., house, emphasized the importance
of new scholarships that will bring students to Jefferson who otherwise could not
afford to come to Philadelphia.
"Education is at the forefront of the gifts," he
said.
Kimmel was born in South Philadelphia in 1928. He grew up
poor, with a father who was a musician and switched to driving a cab during the
Depression but still had a hard time supporting his family.
Jones New York, the women's clothing brand Kimmel launched
in 1970, turned into a fashion giant with $4.3 billion in annual revenues under
Kimmel's leadership. The firm, known most recently as Jones Group Inc., went
public in 1991, making Kimmel rich. He started his foundation in 1993.
Kimmel, who is worth $1.3 billion, according to the latest
Forbes magazine estimate, remained chief executive until 2002 and chairman
until April, when the company was sold to a private equity firm for $2.2
billion, including debt and equity.
Kimmel's foundation has given $550 million to support cancer
research.
Major gifts include $150 million to the Johns Hopkins Cancer
Center, now the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, and $25 million for
the Sidney Kimmel Center for Prostate and Urologic Cancers at Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Relationships with such premier academic medical centers
gave Kimmel plenty of options for his latest gift of $110 million.
But for Kimmel, Philadelphia was the obvious place to give
the money.
"If it wasn't Philadelphia, I probably would not have
considered the gift," he said. "I feel good about Philadelphia. It's
my home."
Kimmel and his wife said they planned to stay in the city
through Thursday evening, when they will attend the Ball on the Square in
Rittenhouse Square - where they met about 25 years ago, she said. They have
been married for 15 years.
Combined with the $225 million gift from Raymond and Ruth
Perelman to the University of Pennsylvania's medical school in 2012, the Kimmel
gift helps solidify Philadelphia's standing as a major center for medical
education.
For Jefferson, the Kimmel gift comes at the beginning of a
new era. On July 1, Jefferson, which employs 13,462, will split from Main Line
Health, its partner in the Jefferson Health System.
Klasko is banking on an injection of entrepreneurial spirit
- along with openness to innovative thinking from other industries - to help
Jefferson succeed in a world of ever-tighter finances for health-care systems.
"I think a lot of what we asked Sidney to consider and
what we committed to doing is based on that," Klasko said.
Kimmel's Major Philadelphia Cash Gifts
Kimmel Medical College . . . $110 million
Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts . . . $63 million
Raymond and Ruth Perelman Jewish Day School . . . $25
million
Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia . . . $25 million
National Museum of American Jewish History . . . $25 million
Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson . . . $10 million
National Constitution Center . . . $5 million
Source: Philly.com
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