MBK Partners founder and chairman Michael ByungJu Kim / Courtesy of MBK Partners

Michael ByungJu Kim, founder and chairman of global private equity firm MBK Partners, has donated $25 million (35 billion won) to Haverford College, his alma mater located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, earlier this month, continuing his manifold charitable activities.

The Asia-focused private equity announced Monday that Kim donated the sum to Haverford College last Tuesday in U.S. local time. This donation is the largest amount in the school's history, since its founding in 1833. The liberal arts college plans to utilize the donation to establish the Institute for Ethical Inquiry & Leadership and develop education programs.

"Ethical inquiry is at the core of a Haverford education, and leadership without ethics is a body without a soul," Kim said. "The new institute, with its interdisciplinary approach and international engagement, will pioneer the way we think about ethics and practice ethics-based leadership in the global community."

Expressing gratitude for the donation, Haverford College President Wendy Raymond said the money will be used to promote education programs on leadership with ethical consciousness under the college's long-term strategy aimed at nurturing students with ethical thinking and leadership.

"This transformative gift, and the institute it will create, clearly articulate Haverford's enduring commitment to an ethically centered liberal arts education," Raymond said. "Through the institute, our students will be provided with rigorous, interdisciplinary opportunities as they prepare for lives of integrity, ambition and purpose. I am extraordinarily grateful for Michael's incredible leadership and support of the college."

Kim will also be appointed as chairman of the college's Board of Managers on July 1. The head of the major private equity firm previously served as a member of the board from 2005 to 2017. During that time, he also made a donation in 2010 for the construciton of Ki Young Kim Hall, one of the 200-acre campus's newest dorms, named after his late father.

Forbes selected him for two consecutive years in 2021 and 2022 as one of the top philanthropists in Asia. He donated significant amounts of money to various arts and education institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Harvard Business School, where he earned his MBA degree, as well as the Seoul Metropolitan Government to build a new public library in Seoul.

Additionally, the scholarship foundation he established in 2007 has also been providing full college tuition for four years to its scholarship recipients for 17 years, awarding 202 students so far.

Kim himself called his charitable act "impact giving," and has previously said, "artworks offer beauty to the world, and education is a force to change the world."