Nike co-founders Phil Knight and wife Penny make US$500m gift to University of Oregon

Phil Knight and his wife Penny are giving a second US$500 million gift to the University of Oregon to bolster a science research campus named for them, Bloomberg reports.

Phil Knight studied business at the school and was a miler on the track team under coach Bill Bowerman.

The two co-founded Nike Inc, which has become the world’s largest maker of athletic shoes and sports apparel.

The gift will expand the school’s bioengineering and applied scientific research and training with additional students, faculty members and a second building, the school said Tuesday in a statement.

The couple’s initial donation, announced in 2016, helped create the science complex and cemented the Knight family at the time as the biggest donors to the university.

“The work that will take place at the Knight Campus will improve people’s lives directly through innovative treatments and devices, and indirectly through company formation, jobs and economic development,” Michael Schill, the university’s president, said in the statement.

Knight, 83, is the world’s 21st-richest person worth US$60.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His wealth has jumped as Oregon-based Nike’s stock has jumped by 12 percent in 2021 and 58 percent in the past year.