Businessman and UCLA alum Joe C. Wen and his family donated $30 million to the university’s School of Nursing, which will be renamed in his honor, the university announced Tuesday.
The renaming of the UCLA Joe C. Wen School of Nursing will make it the first school at the university named for an Asian-American, UCLA officials said.
“Nurses are the backbone of health care. In the span of our lives, a nurse is often the first and last person we see, a constant presence in our most vulnerable moments,” UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said in a statement announcing the gift. “This extraordinary gift from Joe C. Wen and his family honors that vital role. It expands our ability to educate the next generation of nurse leaders and faculty, those who will care for people across their lifetimes and help fulfill UCLA’s mission to improve lives through education, service, and innovation in health.”
According to the university, the donation will support the school’s four educational programs, expand nursing research and “ensure UCLA’s role in meeting the health care needs of California and the nation.”
Wen immigrated with his family from Taiwan to the United States as a teenager. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from UCLA in 1998 and an MBA from USC. He began a paper-trading company in 2003 that evolved into the Formosa Ltd. multinational conglomerate whose holdings include real estate, development, venture capital and forest product manufacturing and trading.
“This transformational gift will help create a global academic research powerhouse and think tank for future nursing leaders,” Wen said in a statement. “UCLA is the nation’s number one public university, the UCLA School of Nursing is a top 10 nationally ranked nursing program, and UCLA Health is consistently ranked among the top hospitals in the nation.
“I am inspired by my alma mater, which has shaped our overwhelming belief in educational institutions as change agents for human health. I am honored to support this great cause. Most importantly, this gift will have an immediate and profound impact on communities here in Southern California, especially in today’s challenging health care landscape, through additional research funding and the advancement of AI technology in health care.”