Len Blavatnik
Board of Governors
Chairman, Access Industries
Len Blavatnik is a global philanthropist focused on accelerating discovery, technology, and innovation to benefit the whole of society. Over the past decade, he has contributed more than $1 billion to over 250 institutions through the Blavatnik Family Foundation.
Upholding the values instilled in him by his academic parents, Mr. Blavatnik is an avid supporter of universities distinguished by programs of excellence. In the UK, donations have included £75 million to establish the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford, founded to inspire better global governance and public policy.
In the United States, the Foundation's transformational gifts include the largest donation, $200 million, in the history of Harvard Medical School; $70 million to support Harvard Business School and increase life science entrepreneurship; and $80 million to Yale University to further life science research and development.
In 2007, he created the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists, administered by the New York Academy of Sciences. With a judging panel and Scientific Advisory Council of Nobel laureates and many of the world's most esteemed scientists, the awards honor promising scientists in the early stages of their careers when seed funding can significantly accelerate breakthrough research. The awards, funded in their entirety by the Foundation, have recognized 443 scientists in the UK, the U.S., and Israel.
A lifelong patron of the arts, Mr. Blavatnik supports world-class cultural institutions, including £50 million to the Tate Modern and £10 million each to the National Portrait Gallery and The Courtauld in London, as well as $25 million to Carnegie Hall in New York.
Mr. Blavatnik is the chairman and founder of Access Industries, a privately held global investment group established in 1986. Born in Odesa, Ukraine in the former Soviet Union, he emigrated with his family to the United States in 1978. He received a master's degree in computer science from Columbia University in 1981 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1989. A dual American and British citizen, Mr. Blavatnik was knighted in 2017 for his services to philanthropy.