Haverford College is getting $25 million from ‘the godfather of Asian private equity’ for an institute on ethics

Haverford College has received a $25 million gift — tied for the largest amount in the school’s history — from incoming board chair and alumnus Michael B. Kim, a private equity firm leader who has the distinction of being one of the richest people in Korea.

The liberal arts college plans to use the gift toward starting a new Institute for Ethical Inquiry & Leadership, including a new building to house it, though that will require more philanthropy. Kim, the college said, is committed to educating Haverford students about the role, importance and value of ethics and ethical leadership.

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“We can look at the world we live in and understand there is no better time than now for focusing and investing in ethical leadership,” Wendy Raymond, president of Haverford, said in an interview.

Kim, 60, who was once named “the godfather of Asian private equity,” came to the United States with his family from South Korea when he was 11 and grew up in New Jersey. He enrolled at Haverford in 1981, majoring in English, and earned his bachelor’s degree in 1985. He got his MBA from Harvard in 1990.

Kim, who resides in Seoul but also has U.S. citizenship, began his career as a banker at Goldman Sachs and worked at two other companies before starting MBK Partners, which has become one of Asia’s largest private equity firms and manages more than $30 billion in assets, according to Forbes. He has a current net wealth of $9.7 billion, making him the second-richest person in Korea, according to Forbes.

“When we began in 2005, global institutional investors would scratch their heads and say ‘We get China, we get Japan, but why Korea?’” Kim told the Financial Times in a 2022 interview. “Now they understand that compared to the larger markets of China and Japan, Korea is not too risky and not too low-growth. That’s why we call Korea the Goldilocks country.”

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He is married to Park Kyung-ah, daughter of the late Park Tae-joon, former prime minister of South Korea and founder of one of the world’s largest steel companies, according to Forbes. The couple have two children.

In 2020, he published the novel Offerings, in which the story of the main character, Dae Joon, an investment banker from Seoul who works on Wall Street, closely mirrors his own. The importance of ethics features prominently.

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“I always thought the success I’ve had is due to some talent, yes, hard work, yes, but it’s also due to luck,” he said, according to Forbes. “Recognition of that is critical to giving you a sense of reality, and it’s from that recognition that you get humility.”

He has long kept ties to Haverford, serving on the board of managers from 2005 to 2017. He donated to the college during a previous fundraising campaign, pledging $7.5 million toward the construction of a new residence hall, named after his father, Ki Young Kim.

Kim recently returned to the board and will become its chair on July 1. Of his gift toward the new institute, Kim said in a statement on the university’s website, “Ethical inquiry is at the core of a Haverford education, and leadership without ethics is a body without a soul.”

Kim’s gift is tied for the largest in the school’s history; in 2014, former board chair Howard Lutnick gave $25 million.

The donation will serve as the lead gift toward the new building for the institute, as well as go toward programming and endowed professorships, Raymond said.

“I am extraordinarily grateful for Michael’s incredible leadership and support of the college,” Raymond said.

Ethics have always featured prominently at the college, which has Quaker roots and is governed in part by “a student-administered” Honor Code, which oversees the academic and social experience.

The new institute will emphasize an interdisciplinary approach and emphasize ethics in the liberal arts and how it should be applied to the world at large, setting it apart from ethics institutes often situated at business schools. All Haverford departments and fields will be involved, from the arts to the social sciences, humanities and natural sciences, the college noted.

“We know our students and our prospective students really want to see their liberal arts college education translate into action,” Raymond said.

The institute also will include public engagement, she said, possibly offering an executive certificate in ethical leadership or programs for high school students. It could include setting up a program with a curriculum in ethical leadership and inquiry, taught by Haverford faculty or alumni, for a week or two in other cities, which also would invite different areas to learn more about Haverford, she said.

“We want to grow ethical leaders everywhere,” she said.