The Carnegie Mellon Graduate School of Industrial Administration was renamed the David A. Tepper School of Business today in recognition of a record $55 million donation from a Wall Street investor and his wife. The University announced the donation, its biggest ever, at a press conference this morning.

University President Jared Cohon called the event a momentous and historic occasion for the University, on par with the combination of Mellon Institute and Carnegie Tech in 1967. He also said that the gift is the second largest naming gift ever received by a business school, and the largest single gift ever given to the University.

In 2002, donations from all sources received by the University totaled only $36.3 million.

Tepper received his Master of Business Administration degree at Carnegie Mellon in 1982. Today, he is President and Founder of Appaloosa Management, a hedge fund investment firm with $3 billion in assets.

Kenneth Dunn, dean of the Tepper School of Business said, “The donation will enable us to continue our strong tradition of developing intellectual excitement.”

Tepper was a student in Dunn’s finance course in the early '80s, and according to Dunn was an accomplished student. Dunn commended Tepper’s efforts to support the School at a relatively young age.

“I was compelled by an overwhelming sense of gratitude to my parents … the city … and to the business school,” Tepper, 46, said of his reason to give. “The education I received has and still helps me in my career each and every day.”

Tepper is a Pittsburgh native, and attended nearby Peabody High School and the University of Pittsburgh.

The business school expects to use $5 million of the donation to retain and attract new faculty. The rest will be used to increase the school’s endowment from $87 million to $137 million.

Tepper called on fellow alumni and Pittsburgh residents to follow his example. He stressed the importance of having a large endowment and said that even with his donation the school’s endowment is significantly less than those of its peers.

“The only condition is that [the school] beef up its development department. It must beef up its endowment,” said Tepper. “It is equally important for people of lower income to give.”

Dunn said the donation will be used to increase resources in four key areas at the school: intellectual capital, academic innovation, the student experience, and its global reputation. He called the donation a transformational gift that would provide discretionary spending to improve the school.

“[The donation] will affect all programs…. I have focused on the MBA program in my time here because it was most in need of help. Now, we can take ideas from the MBA program and apply them to the undergraduate program,” Dunn said.

According to Dunn, the economics department at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences will also benefit because many courses there are taught by Tepper School faculty.

Dunn said that he already has a great faculty, and because of the donation, he will have the resources to give his faculty members more time to create new, innovative curricula.

Cohon expects undergraduate students outside the School of Business to benefit through improved faculty and the possibility of more courses.

“I am confident every part of the school will benefit. The impact won’t be immediate; some of it will be short-term, some of it will be long-term,” said Cohon.

Second-year MBA student Gautam Gandhi said, “I think [the donation] is great for the school. The fact that he is an alum shows the value of the education here.”

Gandhi also donated to the school this year.

Yesterday, the University e-mailed students to prepare them for today’s announcement. However, the Associated Press was accidentally given a copy of the press release, which it published yesterday despite an embargo on the information.

“Our reporter got the release and didn't see the embargo,” said Jack Stokes, media relations manager at the Associated Press. “We're sorry that that happened. It was an oversight.”

“It was an understandable mistake…. We were prepared for a leak, and executed our contingency plan,” said Michael Laffin, associate director of media relations.

He noted, though, that the announcement will now be in the news for two days, instead of one.

“I thought it was funny that many people knew about the event before the ‘official’ announcement. The University should probably have sent an official announcement in its first e-mail,” said Rohit Patnaik, a senior in electrical and computer engineering.

Jackie Cipa, fifth-year chemistry student said, “I think it's rather silly to make such a fuss about keeping it a big secret like that. It's nice of Mr. Tepper to give so much money … but I think that the University could have acted a little more…mature about it instead of acting like a teenager with a big secret.”