BOG 2016: Coller School of Management Dedicated

In a milestone for Tel Aviv University, the Faculty of Management has been newly dedicated as the Coller School of Management, thanks to a substantial gift from UK investment wizard and TAU Honorary Doctor Jeremy Coller. The gift is expected to take the School to the next level in management research and teaching and to catapult it to the very top among academic providers of management education in venture, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

In his greetings at the dedication ceremony, TAU President Joseph Klafter said, “Today we enter a new era in management research and teaching at the University: The Coller Era. Jeremy’s gift to the University will be long-lasting and immense.” He added that “since we hosted Jeremy for the first time on campus in 2013 he has viewed the University as one giant startup. And why not?” he asked. “We have the brains, the creativity and the chutzpah. We are ideally positioned to integrate high-level R&D with the humming entrepreneurial environment that is Tel Aviv and Israel.”  

Dean of the Coller School Moshe Zviran said, “Mr. Coller’s transformational gift is the most important milestone in our development in the past years. As the School celebrates 50 years since its founding, this expansion will enable us to break new ground in management research and innovation. We will educate our students in the core fundamentals of venture and entrepreneurship, and nurture the leaders of the future.  

Prof. Zviran noted that the Coller School is Israel’s largest and leading school of management and the only one in Israel to have gained the prestigious AACSB accreditation. He added that the School has educated generations of managers, many of whom have risen to leading positions in Israel’s private and public sectors as well as at companies abroad.

Jeremy Coller is CEO and founder of Coller Capital, one of the largest global firms in the secondary private equity market. He is a committed philanthropist and supporter of worldwide teaching and research in entrepreneurship and innovation, including at TAU where he founded the Coller Institute of Venture in 2013. Based on his financial acumen in the private equity market, Financial News named him “Personality of the Decade” in Europe. He was also voted one of the most influential people in his line of business in each of the past four years.

Mr. Coller, who was also guest of honor at the first Assembly of the 2016 Board of Governors Meeting, said “there are two ways to change the world – through education and through successful innovation. This is an entrepreneurial university and it’s inspiring,” he said. “Venture is respected here and I think this school has the right ingredients to become the world’s leading venture business school. I hope that Coller will be a brand name like Wharton and Kellogg in the near future.”

Also speaking at the ceremony was Prof. Eli Talmor, a former professor of TAU and the Head of the Coller Institute of Private Equity at London Business School.

The Leon Recanati­­ Graduate School of Business Administration founded by the Recanati family will continue to operate within the Coller School.