Meet the wealth manager who built a $38 billion firm and gave $100 million to the MBA program that launched him

(Credit: Photo courtesy of Jeff and Benita Thomasson)

In 1981, Jeff Thomasson earned his MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, which is regularly ranked among the top programs. That launched him on the path to building his own wealth management firm, which now has more than $38 billion in assets under advisement.

Now, he’s giving back to the school that made him. Last week, IU announced Thomasson and his wife, Benita, had donated $100 million toward graduate education at Kelley. The gift will also go toward supporting IU’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and is the largest from an individual in IU history. In total, the Thomassons have donated more than $111 million to the school, and the board of trustees has approved naming the Kelley School’s graduate division after Thomasson.