Stanford University’s newest building will bear the name of Nike Inc. founder Phil Knight. The university’s Graduate School of Business on Wednesday broke ground on the new Knight Management Center, a 360,000-square-foot, eight-building campus that is designed for the school’s MBA program.
On the Stanford campus site Wednesday, Knight, who received his Stanford MBA in 1962, pressed his feet into fresh concrete, leaving an impression wearing a pair of black Nike Air Max 360s.
“My hope is that this new campus will enable future generations of students to have the life-changing experience I had at Stanford Business School,” Knight said in a statement. “If there was no Stanford Graduate School of Business, there would be no Nike. The idea for a business really never took form until I took that small business management course. It was out of that I had the encouragement and enthusiasm to start Nike.”
Knight was an early lead donor for the project, giving $105 million, which is believed to be the largest ever gift to a business school. The campus is expected to cost $350 million by its completion in 2011.
“It is fitting that the new campus be named for Phil Knight, who is one of the great innovators and entrepreneurs in American business,” Robert L. Joss, the Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, said in the news release. “He created not just a company but an industry. His generosity, and that of our other alumni, allows the Stanford Graduate School of Business to lead the way and set new standards.”
