The McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia is pleased to announce a $3 million gift from Robert M. White Jr. (McIntire ’87), President of Real Capital Analytics Inc., to establish the Bicentennial Professorship Fund in Real Estate Finance.
With an additional $2 million match from the University’s Bicentennial Professors Fund, White’s gift provides $5 million in faculty support for initiatives in real estate finance, a growing field of study impacting future curriculum development at McIntire and across UVA.
Prompted by a desire to see the University strengthen its coursework with a more formal interdisciplinary program specific to his area of expertise, White instituted the professorship fund with a leadership-level gift. He believes the diversity of experiences of many of his fellow alumni who have garnered success in the field can help to make a critical difference in both supporting and informing future programmatic development.
“My hope is that the McIntire School will use this gift to further expand its real estate curriculum and potentially offer classes to a broader audience within the University,” White says. “Real estate investment and development require knowledge of multiple disciplines, and McIntire students are so successful in the industry because of the well-rounded business education they get. Prospective architects, urban planners, economists, lawyers, and many others could benefit from these classes, too, just as McIntire real estate students could benefit from classes in some of these other disciplines.”
Having recently attended a meeting on Grounds to discuss emerging educational opportunities in the field, White is enthusiastic about the potential for a collaborative pan-University academic program hosted by the McIntire School. McIntire will apply White’s gift toward attracting and retaining world-class real estate faculty and staff around any newly launched or expanded curriculum.
White believes that his finance studies at the McIntire School helped him to pursue his lifelong interest in property while preparing him to excel in his career tracking capital markets for commercial property around the world. “From an early age, I always knew I wanted to be in real estate,” he says. “McIntire provided the skills and the opportunity to pursue a real estate career on Wall Street and the lens to view real estate as any other financial marketplace. My education in finance has been invaluable to my career of bringing Wall Street insights and analysis to the real estate markets.”
White founded Real Capital Analytics Inc. in 2000 to bring greater transparency to the investment markets by providing real-time data of capital flows and prices of commercial properties. He is a Counselor of Real Estate, a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and a Fellow of the Homer Hoyt Institute.
About the McIntire School of Commerce
The McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia proudly celebrates a nearly 100-year commitment to preparing its students to become thoughtful, innovative leaders in global business and society. McIntire’s unique integrated educational experience leverages technology, welcomes corporations into the classroom, and offers unparalleled, immersive global learning opportunities. The School is home to six research centers and many highly regarded undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs. Learn more at commerce.virginia.edu.
