Sandy and Joan Weill give $185 million to UCSF

Sonoma Valley residents Sanford I. “Sandy” Weill (former CEO of Citigroup) and his wife, Joan, have announced they are donating $185 million to establish the Weill Institute for Neurosciences at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF).

According to UCSF public information officer Pete Farley, the new center will intellectually (and partially physically) link neuroscientists, neurologists and neurosurgeons across UCSF in an effort to accelerate the development of new therapies for diseases affecting the brain and nervous system – including psychiatric disorders.

This is one of the largest gifts ever made to support the neurosciences in the United States – and the largest single donation to UC San Francisco in its 150-year history, according to UCSF officials.

Sandy Weill’s 50-year-career as a financier culminated with his tenure as CEO of Citigroup. The Weills, who are investors in Sonoma Media Investments, which owns the Index-Tribune, were among the original signatories of Bill and Melinda Gates’ and Warren Buffett’s “Giving Pledge”; they have made more than $1 billion in gifts to educational, medical, cultural and artistic causes – from Cornell University (Sandy Weill’s alma mater) to Carnegie Hall. Now dividing their time between residences in New York and Sonoma Valley, the Weills are supporting initiatives and institutions on both coasts.

According to Farley, UCSF neuroscience is now poised to begin making a real difference in the lives of patients with diseases of the brain and nervous system, including Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. A key element of the Weills’ gift is its support of psychiatry: researchers in this area will work side-by-side with neuroscientists in a new 275,000-square-foot building that will serve as the campus-wide hub of the Weill Institute.

“By bringing basic research in psychiatry completely into the fold of the neurosciences,” said Joan Weill, “we can help advance our understanding of mental illness, and help take the stigma away so that it can be treated like any other disease of the body.”

In addition to 45 new research labs, the new building will house clinics that will provide care to patients with diseases including:

Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); and Huntington’s disease.

Movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease and dystonia.

Sleep disorders.

Chronic pain and migraine.

Paralysis caused by stroke or injury.

Including this latest gift, philanthropic commitments to UCSF’s neuroscience programs in the last year alone have topped half a billion dollars.

In 2011, the Weills donated $12 million to Sonoma State University for completion of the Green Music Center, which was described as the largest single cash gift in SSU’s history. The 1,400-seat Tanglewood-style concert hall is now named after the Weills.

The Weills purchased the 392-acre Shanel estate (located on land on Sonoma Mountain between Grove and Carriger) in Sonoma in 2010.