This article from the Palm Beach Daily News outlines the outsized gift Palm Beach Hedge Funder Bill Finneran gave to his alma mater, Villanova University. Having lived in Villanova PA and having special ties to the university, I am very grateful for Mr. Finneran’s generous gift. I am thrilled to have him as a Palm Beach neighbor and a member of the hedge fund community. Thank you, Bill!!
Daily News Society Editor
After the swiiish comes the ka-ching.
A $22.6 million gift from a resident will upgrade NCAAchampion Villanova University’s basketball pavilion into a world-class facility. It is the largest gift ever to Villanova athletics.
That donor is Bill Finneran, Class of ‘63, a former trustee, who made the decision to give the staggering sum way before that final toss in the Villanova-North Carolina matchup sailed past Finneran’s head — yes, he was at The Game — and into the net.
“It’s been about three years in the making,” Finneran said from his Palm Beach home on Tuesday. “All the lawyers and everything, these things take a lot of time.”
Villanova, where Finneran earned a degree in economics “summa cum lousy,” as he described it, “is almost part of my family. I have never seen a classier group of young men than those guys on the basketball court. They’re all going to graduate; they’re all four-year guys.” The school, Finneran says, is among the top schools in the country for athlete graduation rates. “They’re good students. As a whole they have a 3.0 average.”……. Read more here