Bren Gift Endows Chair in Business at Chapman

Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren donated $1.5 million to Chapman University in Orange to endow a chair in the business and economics school, the university announced Thursday.

The gift will go toward creating the Donald Bren Chair in Business and Economics, which will be held by Chapman President and economist James L. Doti. The endowment will support Doti’s research and teaching activities, including the annual Orange County Economic Forecast that Doti has overseen for 22 years.

“There are some projects we’ve held up on doing because we didn’t have the funding,” said the 53-year-old Doti, who will hold the chair for the duration of his Chapman career. “The endowment will help make that research possible.”

Among the projects under consideration are a book-length study on Orange County’s economy, a survey on affordable housing and an expansion of the purchasing managers’ survey to encompass the entire state.

Interest generated by the endowment, rather than its principal, will fund the various activities, Doti said.

In a statement, Bren said Chapman is a “significant thread in Orange County’s economic fabric. It pleases me to recognize that fact with the establishment of this chair.”

Bren is the county’s wealthiest resident with an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine. The bulk of that wealth comes from his ownership of the Irvine Co., one of the nation’s largest land-development companies.

The gift brings the total funds generated by the university’s $160-million Millennium Campaign to $112 million. The campaign will end March 4, 2001, the date of the school’s 140th anniversary. Chapman has added six of its 15 endowed chairs since 1996, said Chapman spokeswoman Cathi Douglas.

The Bren Foundation has endowed six chairs since 1988 with two at UCI, two at UC Santa Barbara, one at the California Institute of Technology and now one at Chapman. The foundation has endowed another three chairs at UCI that are in the process of being filled, said Irvine Co. spokesman Larry Thomas.