Lassonde Family Foundation gifts $25M to University of Utah entrepreneurship institute

SALT LAKE CITY — Pierre Lassonde and his late wife Claudette MacKay-Lassonde — who was pregnant at the time — first came to the University of Utah 54 years ago in a two-seat sports car with one suitcase, no knowledge of the English language and only enough money to last until Christmas.

“Our parents thought we were completely insane, and we were. But we had a vision. We wanted to do something different,” Lassonde said.

While it wasn’t easy, the couple persevered, welcoming their daughter and eventually graduating in 1973. From there, Lassonde became a renowned mining entrepreneur and philanthropist for education and the arts.

After his wife died in 2000, Lassonde wanted to recognize their time attending the university together and how the education and support they received at the university set them up for success, launching the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute — a nationally ranked hub for student entrepreneurship and innovation and an interdisciplinary division of the David Eccles School of Business.

On Friday, the Lassonde Family Foundation gifted the institute $25 million to continue its mission, bringing the foundation’s total contributions to $50 million.

The gift comes as the institute anticipates its 25th anniversary in 2026.

“The institute has become the destination for student entrepreneurs over the past 25 years, and we are very proud of what it has done to inspire students to launch companies, gain real-world experience and build their careers and futures,” Lassonde said. “The new gift is a way to deepen our investment in these efforts. It will allow the institute to continue to dream big and do incredible things for young entrepreneurs over the next 25 years and beyond. We know more great things are coming.”

The institute has demonstrated results, too, contributing to the Eccles School of Business receiving the 12th spot in MBA rankings for entrepreneurship, according to a 2024 U.S. News and World Report ranking.

The program came in as the fifth-best in the nation among public schools. The institute has also seen student success that gives weight to its high rankings.

In February 2024, Lassonde student Sadie Bowler successfully launched her company — SadieB Personal Care — in 507 Target stores across the nation. Today, the institute reaches more than 6,000 students and supports more than 500 startup teams annually.

University of Utah President Taylor Randall credits the institute with helping to transform entrepreneurial education on campus.

“Pierre Lassonde and the Lassonde Family Foundation have inspired us to reimagine what it means to teach entrepreneurship at a university,” Randall said in a statement. “They have challenged us to focus on students and their ideas, hands-on learning, and to provide entrepreneurship education at a scale not available anywhere else.

“Every student at the University of Utah has the opportunity to get involved with the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute to launch a company or product and learn entrepreneurial skills such as creative problem solving, self-reliance and perseverance. The Lassonde family gifts are changing the lives of countless students, driving the local and national economy and helping us achieve our university mission of achieving unsurpassed societal impact,” Randall said.

Kurt Dirks, dean of the David Eccles School of Business, shares Randall and Lassonde’s high expectations for the future of the institute.

“This is a transforming investment … both on size, as well as vision,” Dirks said. “The Lassonde Institute is really for students, by students, and this is something that’s going to help us lead down that path. This is going to allow us to really touch much more than just the business school but really the entire university.”