Jeff Thomasson built a $38 billion firm from $20,000 debt and 1,000 client meetings a year, now gives $100 million to Indiana University

Jeff Thomasson, CEO and Managing Director of Oxford Financial Group, Ltd. has donated $100 million to Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. The donation follows Jeff Thomasson building Oxford Financial Group into one of the independent registered investment adviser firms in the United States. Oxford now manages than $38 billion in assets. Jeff Thomasson has returned to the school where Jeff Thomasson began his career to support tomorrow’s business and finance students. Thomasson started the firm at age 23 with $20,000 in graduate-school debt in the early 1980s . He grew his client base largely through cold calling, holding roughly 1,000 meetings per year and working six days a week, according to Forbes.

The donation arrives years after Jeff Thomasson earned his MBA from Kelley and after Jeff Thomasson built a large wealth management business. Jeff Thomasson founded Oxford in 1981 after Jeff Thomasson received his MBA from the Indiana University Graduate Business School. He specialized in investments and taxation and was named Outstanding MA while at IU.

ALSO READ: Nike co-founder Phil Knight gives alma mater University of Oregon $1 billion, biggest-ever public university gift after unscheduled call

The gift from Jeff Thomasson and his wife Benita is the single donation ever made to Indiana University and will help graduate education at Kelley School and support the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

Jeff Thomasson’s $100 million gift to Indiana University Kelley School

Indiana University announced recently that Jeff Thomasson and Benita Thomasson had donated $100 million to graduate education at Kelley School of Business. The gift will also aid the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. The university board of trustees has approved naming Kelley’s graduate division after Jeff Thomasson.