Newsmaker

Every Friday, we choose an alum who has been making headlines—for better or for worse.
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3/25/11: John Malone ’63

Back in November, we wrote about grand plans for reorganizing and expanding the faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). The unanswered question at the time was where the money would come from for new faculty positions, especially at a time where vacancies are going unfilled in some parts of the university due to budget woes. On March 24 came the answer: a $50 million gift from telecommunications mogul John Malone ’63 that will fund 10 new professorships in a school that currently has 50.

Malone, whose Yale degree was in electrical engineering, gave $24 million to build the Daniel Malone Engineering Center at Yale in 2005, which he named for his father. Forbes estimated last year that Malone is worth $2.4 billion; he made his fortune as a pioneer in cable television, building Tele-Communications Inc. into the largest cable company in the nation before it was acquired by AT&T. He is now chairman of Liberty Media, which owns parts of DirecTV, Expedia.com, Sirius XM satellite radio, the Atlanta Braves, and many other media operations. He’s also one of the nation’s largest private landholders.

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