By R. Paul Dhillon
VANCOUVER – Prominent Indo-Canadian philanthropist and venture capitalist Hari Varshney, a proud alumni of University of British Columbia (UBC), has given his alma mater another gift of $750,000 after raising million for the university.
Varshney and his wife Madhu’s new donation will create a “Hari & Madhu Varshney Alumni Association Suite” which houses all the staff which works at the new Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre.
The Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre will open officially on September 30 at the launch of the University’s Centennial Year.
Hari and Madhu are long tine supporters of UBC having established “Hari Varshney Business Career Center” at Sauder School of Business and providing their support to establish Center for India and South Asia at the Asian a Research Center.
“Madhu and I are grateful to UBC for a scholarship which brought me to Vancouver. Once you are grateful, you have no ego which in turn brings happiness. By donating to UBC we are simply showing our gratitude. As such whenever we feel there is a worthy cause we support UBC,” Hari Varshney told the LINK Thursday.
The new Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre at UBC is a 41,700 square foot facility offering a state-of-the-art conference and event space in a prime location in the heart of UBC’s Vancouver campus at the corner of University Boulevard and East Mall. The centre offers a variety of different spaces for event and conference ranging from 350 square feet to 4,700 square feet – the largest of which can accommodate up to 400 people standing and 300 seated. The new building was designed to accommodate meetings, conferences, workshops, product launch fundraisers, cocktail receptions, corporate parties and private social events. The revenue generated from facility rentals will be reinvested into alumni UBC programming.
Varshney, who came to UBC in 1967 on an MBA program, is a devoted community leader with a generous spirit, he has made several major gifts to the university and serves as a cabinet member for UBC’s $1.5 billion start an evolution campaign.
