Alumnus gives $10M for new Western University campus building
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Western University is getting a $10 million boost from an alumnus to support its new entrepreneurship and innovation building.
The gift from Ron Schmeichel, chairperson of JJR Capital Corp., a Toronto-based private equity firm, will help support the creation of a new building that will house entrepreneurial education and programming for students from every faculty.
“I want students from all faculties to be able to come together in the nicest, net-zero, carbon-neutral (building),” said Schmeichel, a graduate of Western’s law school. “This building is the future of Western. And it’s not the building and the four walls. It’s what is going to take place inside of this building: the collaboration of people, former alumni, students and professionals … from all over the place.”
Western’s first net-zero energy building, to be named the Ronald D. Schmeichel building for entrepreneurship and innovation, will house a state-of-the-art classroom, a digital lab and a “maker space” for 3D printers, metalworking, machinery and woodworking tools.
Entrepreneurship programs, including Western’s Morrissette institute for entrepreneurship and incubators, accelerator programs and networks, also will be housed in the 100,000-square-foot property, located on campus just off Western Road. Construction is expected to finish by the fall of 2023.
Western president Alan Shepard said the $10 million gift signals a “vote of confidence in the university,” the work Western has done and continues to do.
“The funding is obviously very important to the building construction, but to me, equally important is the way it conveys respect, opportunity, investment in our students and in their futures, and in the future of Canada,” he said.
Standing in front of the Western law building, where he studied during his law school years, Schmeichel described how the university helped him find his path to entrepreneurship.
“I absolutely love this school,” he said. “It changed my trajectory in my business life, graduating from law school, going out and taking risks, learning judgement and being with such great classmates and students.”
A 1995 graduate of Western, Schmeichel articled at a small Toronto law firm before starting his own company, JJR Capital, with two fellow Western alumni in 2002. During the last 20 years, he’s returned to Western to speak to law and business students about entrepreneurship. For him, the goal of the new space is to encourage students to explore new ideas and take risks.
“The building itself has been built on the back of someone who worked hard, someone who didn’t grow up with money,” he said. “I think when you look across this campus, or any campus in Canada these days, you’re going to see a broad range of people that will be inspired by that. That want to know that they can do it too.”
Alongside the new building, Western will use the $10 million gift to create awards in Schmeichel’s name, offering entrepreneurial students financial support and mentorship.
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