The Independent Collegian

Issue date: 7/9/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Dan Miller John Neff presents UT President Lloyd Jacobs with his $4 million donation to the College of Business Administration.

John Neff is giving back to his alma mater, again. On June 15, Neff and his wife, Lillian, gave the UT College of Business Administration $4 million.

The money will go to the Department of Finance, according to Barb Tartaglia, principle gifts officer for UT.

Half of the donation will go to an endowed chair position, and the other half is a bequest that UT will receive after Neff dies, said Tom Gutteridge, dean of the College of Business Administration.

"An endowed chair means the chair is funded [and UT] can do a search to find someone with an expertise in that specific area," Tartaglia said.

"It would be a tenured full professor, and you can't just recruit those people … this will allow us to get a star in the finance area," Gutteridge said.

The $2 million for the finance chairman will go into the UT Foundation, and the interest earned from that money will fund the chairman, Tartaglia said.

According to Gutteridge, a search for the new chairman will begin next fall; this allows the new employee to be on board for the 2009-2010 academic year.

The new position is the first endowed chairman in the College of Business but not in the university, Gutteridge said. An addition such as this will only make the college better.

More endowed chairmen in the College of Business will be on the way, Gutteridge said.

This is only one of a few gifts the Neffs have given to UT.

In 2003, the Neffs gave $1 million to fund the John B. and Lillian Neff Trading Floor in a new addition that will be added to Stranahan Hall. The floor will be an interactive lab connected with the world's financial exchanges in real time.

The couple also gave $500,000 to begin the Neff Scholars - Jump Start Program, a program for underprivileged College of Business students.

"I think if you look at the cumulative amount that he has given, that's what we're calling an extraordinary level," Gutteridge said.

"His support of the university puts him in with a handful of other donators," Tartaglia said.

Neff is a 1955 UT alumnus and holds a degree in industrial marketing.

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