While several vocal American billionaires were threatening to stop their donations to some of the country’s elite universities following student clashes last year over the Israel-Gaza conflict, Roy Vagelos was taking a different tack.
The billionaire former chief executive of US pharmaceutical group Merck, and ex-chair of biotech Regeneron, chose to deepen engagement with the prestigious educational establishments where he and his wife had studied, by making new gifts.
These donations stood in stark contrast to the approach adopted by Marc Rowan, co-founder of the private equity group Apollo Global Management, and by Bill Ackman, founder of the hedge fund Pershing Square.