Lawrenceville School Alum Makes Single Largest Donation In School's History

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ — The Lawrenceville School has received the single largest gift in its 207-year history, the school announced this week. Alibaba Group Executive Vice Chairman Joseph C. Tsai, an alum of Lawrenceville School, and his wife Clara made the undisclosed donation through the Joe & Clara Tsai Foundation.

“We are incredibly grateful to Joe and Clara for this historic and transformational gift,” Lawrenceville School Head Master Stephen S. Murray said. “This offers us an opportunity to accelerate implementation of key elements of our Strategic Plan and to bring us that much closer to achieving some critically important, far-reaching initiatives.

“Joe embodies life-long character and commitment. He speaks movingly about his time as a student at Lawrenceville and understands the pivotal role that a school can play in a young person’s development. With this gift, Joe and Clara help ensure that we will continue the work of inspiring young people to lead lives of integrity and high purpose.”

The gift serves two purposes, according to the school. It will support long-term financial sustainability through endowment, and it will lend important support to one of the School’s four strategic priorities identified in its plan: A Vision for the Future: Lawrenceville 20/20.

It will be dedicated towards the celebration and reinforcement of the community portion of the plan. The plan envisions a new, world-class athletic center with an exceptional, new dining facility as a way to further promote and strengthen community.

The school said it hopes to break ground on the project within two years, and a part of the Tsai gift will support the planning and construction of the new facilities. The new complex will likely be centrally located on campus, but an exact spot has not yet been determined.

“I am grateful for what Lawrenceville has given me 35 years ago. Now, Clara and I are thrilled to give back. We express through this gift our appreciation for what a Lawrenceville experience can do for young people, and we wholeheartedly support Steve in his strategic vision of reinforcing campus life around a strong community,” Joe Tsai said.

Joe Tsai came to Lawrenceville in 1977. He was born in Tapei, Taiwan. While at the school, he played football and lacrosse, was the sports editor of the school newspaper and was part of the Glee Club.
He went on to graduate from Yale University and Yale Law School and practiced with Sullivan & Cromwell in New York as an associate in the firm’s Tax Group.

In 1995, he moved to Hong Kong to begin a career in private equity investment with the Asian office of Investor AB, the Swedish industrial holding company under the stewardship of the Wallenberg family.

His career took another turn when, in 1999, he met Jack Ma and soon after joined him as one of the founding members of the China-based e-commerce company Alibaba. In addition to serving as executive vice chairman of Alibaba Group and as a member of its board of directors, he is a member of Lawrenceville's Board of Trustees.

The Lawrenceville School’s previous largest gift came in 2010, when former English teacher Henry C. Woods Jr. and his wife, Janie, donated $60.2 million to the school, according to Planet Princeton.

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