Delhi Based Entrepreneur Pledges $12.12 Million to Columbia University

Bangalore: Sharik Currimbhoy, a Delhi based entrepreneur who is also the grandson of the founder of herbal cosmetics kingdom Shahnaz Husain has donated a generous gift of $12.12 million to New York’s Colombia University. This gift is to support research and fellowships with a focus on India and emerging markets.  This amount is, by far the largest gift from an alumnus in India to Columbia.

Currimbhoy studied economics at Columbia University from 1998 to 2002 and has been quite a successful entrepreneur. He founded Element Capital, a company that specializes on investment with a focus on real estate and private equity. This money-gift is in honour of his great-great-grandfather Sir Currimbhoy Ebrahim.

“Columbia University molded me into the person I am today by giving me the opportunity to live and work in the financial center of the world, at the same time, I was deeply impacted by Columbia’s Core Curriculum, the College’s courses on significant ideas and achievements in literature, philosophy, history, music, art and science,” says Currimbhoy as reported on the Columbia University website.

"I would like my business vision to match my philanthropic activities as much as possible and in making the endowment to Columbia I hope to have highlighted the importance of emerging economics, especially India. I feel that as an entrepreneur, I will be supporting global academic leaders and economists in India-focused research," Currimbhoy told to ET.

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