Wrights give $10.5 million to School of Engineering Foundation

By Lorraine Cichowski
VCU News Services

RICHMOND, Va. – Ken and Dianne Wright and the Wright Foundation have pledged a $10.5 million unrestricted gift to the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering Foundation.

VCU President Eugene P. Trani, Ph.D., made the announcement Thursday to members of the VCU Founders’ Society.

This leadership gift begins a new fundraising campaign to raise $36 million for the foundation so the School of Engineering can begin to implement its Phase II Plan. Among many other things, the Phase II Plan calls for the construction of a new bioengineering building and a bioprocessing and biochip research facility. Other needs identified on the Phase II list include more faculty and student support funding.

In announcing the gift Dr. Trani said, "We are deeply grateful to Ken and Dianne Wright for making this gift and thereby launching our efforts to meet the objectives of the School’s Phase II Plan. This is a challenge gift and is contingent on the foundation raising another $15 million in the next two years. Ken and Dianne have been generous supporters of the VCU Heart Center, and they realize the importance of the research and teaching going on at the intersection of medicine and engineering.

"These new facilities will help build the academic and research infrastructure of our area to attract and sustain a cluster of biosciences companies and research activities. Building a strong and diverse biosciences cluster will help Virginia reach the forefront of locations with the trained talent to build our economy around the newest technologies. This investment will also directly contribute to new discoveries in cancer research, orthopedic surgery, medical imaging and drug design, just to name a few areas."

Bill Goodwin, president of the School of Engineering Foundation said, " Ken has served faithfully on the foundation board as a trustee for several years, and I am deeply grateful for Ken and Dianne’s great generosity towards the school. The foundation looks forward to working hard to meet their challenge and begin the Phase II development of the school. This is the phase that will merge the basic engineering disciplines into the medical sciences and create a school well positioned for leadership in the ‘Life Sciences Century’."

The VCU School of Engineering opened six years ago with 107 students. Currently, the school enrolls 1,005 students. The average GPA is 3.5, and the SAT average is 1239.

"I am proud of what the school has accomplished, and it gives me and Dianne great pleasure to make this gift in order to keep the school moving forward towards even higher achievements in the future. The future of many areas of medicine is in advanced engineering, and this challenge grant and all the funding that comes in afterwards will position the school to be a major player in the bioengineering discoveries of the future. Dianne and I have great admiration for Dr. Trani’s vision, (Dean) Dr. (Robert) Mattauch’s leadership and the quality of the school’s faculty and students."

The Founders’ Society is an organization with 335 members who have all contributed $100,000 or more to Virginia Commonwealth University.