Iranian immigrant and philanthropist Djavad Mowafaghian is donating $15 million to the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine to establish a facility that will integrate brain research and patient care.
It is the largest gift to date to the UBC Faculty of Medicine.
Business in Vancouver has previously reported (see “Individual donors make their mark” – issue 794; January 11-17, 2005) that Mowafaghian gave $6 million to B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation in what was also that organization’s largest donation to date.
The octogenarian real estate developer and V1500 Holdings owner settled in Vancouver in 1987 after first establishing the largest general contracting company in Iran during the 1970s.
He created the Djavad Mowafaghian Foundation in 2003 and has donated money to more than 20 B.C. organizations.
The decision to donate money to brain health came after he suffered a stroke last April.
The money will go to create the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, a project that is also getting:
- $25 million from the provincial government;
- $15 million from Industry Canada’s Centres of Excellence in Commercialization and Research program;
- $17 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the B.C. Knowledge Development Fund; and
- $5 million from the Townsend family.
The 134,500-square-foot centre is scheduled to open at UBC Hospital in 2013.