30 Aspiring Facts We Bet You Never Knew About Sanford I. Weill

Sanford I. Weill, world renowned for his contributions to various philanthropic causes, has spent decades in financial services, culminating with Travelers and Citicorp merging to form Citigroup in the year 1998. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Carnegie Hall. Here are some really interesting things to learn about the American banker, financier and philanthropist:

1.  He serves as the chairman of the Board of Overseers of Weill Cornell Medical College and an emeritus member of the Board of Trustees of Cornell University.
2.  Weill is said to have orchestrated a $400 million donation to Cornell, of which he and his wife, have reportedly contributed $250 million personally.
3.  He has been the recipient of honorary degrees from Howard University, Hofstra University, University of New Haven, The New School, and Sonoma State University.
4.  Joan and Sandy Weill and the Weill Family Foundation announced a $100 million gift to Weill Cornell on September 10, 2013.
5.  He is a Trustee of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Hospital for Special Surgery; and also a member of the Executive Council of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.
6.  He serves on the Board of Governors of Sidra, a 380-bed speciality teaching hospital, which opened in Qatar, in the year 2014.
7.  In the year 1998, Weill endowed Cornell's medical school, also now known as the Weill Cornell Medical College.
8.  He was awarded with the Baruch Medal for Business and Civic Leadership, presented by Baruch College for his work in public education and his accomplishments in business, in May 2003.
9.  He is said to have instituted a joint program that created the Academy of Finance, with the New York City Board of Education in the year 1980.
10.  He serves as Founder and Chairman of the NAF (National Academy Foundation), which oversees more than 100,000 students in 617 career-themed academies of finance, hospitality and tourism, information technology, engineering, and health sciences.
11.  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo appointed Weill as a member of his New York Education Reform Commission.
12.  He endowed the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology at Cornell, housed in a new life science building named Weill Hall, in June 2007.
13.  Weill, an avid champion of classical music in the United States, has one of the three performance halls in Carnegie Hall named after Weill and his wife, Joan and Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall, since the year 1986.
14.  He is also the chairman of the Green Music Center Board of Advisors at Sonoma State University and a director of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation.
15.  For his 70th birthday, Carnegie Hall raised a record $60 million in one evening through a generous $30 million match by Weill and his wife for the Weill Music Institute.
16.  Joan and Sanford Weill Hall was dedicated at the University of Michigan, which was the home to the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, In September 2006.
17.  It was reported that he donated $5 million towards the construction of the building and an additional $3 million to endow the position of the dean of the school.
18.  He and his wife have been co-chairs, of the annual "Louis Marshall Award Dinner," for most of the past decade, since the year 2000.
19.  In the year 2002, the Joan Weill Adirondack Library and Joan Weill Student Center were dedicated at Paul Smith's College.
20.  He formed a brokerage firm with partners, built it into Shearson Loeb Rhoads, and sold it to American Express for nearly $1 billion in the year 1981.
21.  He was honored with the 2015 recipient of the Carnegie Hall Medal of Excellence, and along with his wife earned the 2009 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy Award.
22.  He and his wife announced a $12 million gift to Sonoma State University, providing the funds to complete the Donald and Maureen Green Music Center concert hall for a fall 2012 opening.
23.  The facility, which is said to have been inspired by Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, has been named the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Hall.
24.  He was the recipient of FinancialWorld Magazine's 1998 CEO of the Year Award, and is reported to have received the same honor from Chief Executive Magazine in 2002.
25.  He started his career as a runner for Bear Stearns on Wall Street in the year 1955, shortly after graduating from Cornell University. The next year, he became a licensed broker at Bear Stearns.
26.  He and his wife announced a $185 million contribution to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) for a new neuroscience institute, in the year 2016, which is said to be the largest donation in the school's history.
27.  Following this, the Weill Institute for Neurosciences will be housed in a $316 million facility to be built at UCSF's Mission Bay campus.
28.  He and his wife, along with their Weill Family Foundation is said to have made a donation of $10 million to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel and the American Friends of the Rambam Medical Center in the year 2011.
29.  In May 1960, he along with Roger Berlind and Peter Potoma, formed Carter, Berlind, Potoma & Weill, which after two years became the Carter, Berlind & Weill, when the New York Stock Exchange brought disciplinary proceedings against Potoma.
30.  He served as the Chairman of Cogan, Berlind, Weill & Levitt, for the period 1965 to 1984, when the company is said to have completed over 15 acquisitions to become the country's second largest securities brokerage firm.
31.  Sanford I. Weill Net Worth: $1 Billion