NYU Langone Hits Its $3 Billion Milestone With Violet Ball

(Bloomberg) -- NYU Langone Health's Violet Ball raised $150 million this week, helping the hospital reach a $3 billion fundraising target it set more than a decade ago.

Hedge fund manager Dan Sundheim and his wife Brett gave $20 million toward the total, while an anonymous donor kicked in a similar amount. Fiona and Stanley Druckenmiller and Lori and Larry Fink were co-chairs of the event, held Monday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The ball honored Ken and Elaine Langone, who have given more than $300 million to the medical center over two decades. Robert Grossman, the center's chief executive during the 12-year campaign, got a surprise honor as Elaine Langone announced that the medical school would be named after him.

The Langones's gifts had given them the naming rights to the medical school, but “we chose not to” accept that, Ken Langone said in an interview Wednesday. “We were blessed to have recognition for ourselves enough. And Bob has been my partner for 12 years during this transformation, and really deserved it.”

Grossman said the campaign has helped NYU Langone in its three missions: education, research and clinical care. Being able to provide tuition-free medical school to students is a particularly satisfying accomplishment, he said.

Read more: Langone has no time to gab as billionaires swirl at the ball

Getting his name on the school “wasn't my intended consequence,” Grossman said. Still, he's not the only one who gets to bask in it.

“At the ball, my daughter-in-law turned to me and said she's happy she changed her name,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Amanda Gordon in New York at agordon01@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Eichenbaum at peichenbaum@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill

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