Indra Nooyi makes largest ever alumni donation to Yale School of Management

Nooyi also becomes the first woman to endow a deanship at a top B-school

The prestigious Yale School of Management will name its deanship in honour of PepsiCo's India-born CEO Indra Nooyi as she gifted an undisclosed amount to her alma mater, becoming the school's biggest alumni donor and the first woman to endow a deanship at a top B-school.

Yale did not disclose the amount gifted by Nooyi but said her "landmark gift" to endow the deanship of the school and inaugurate an innovation fund has made her the "most generous graduate" of Yale School of Management in terms of lifetime giving to the school.

She is also the first woman to endow the deanship at a top business school, the school said in a statement yesterday.

The PepsiCo chairman, who graduated from the school in 1980, credited her experience at the school for "forever" altering "the course of my life" and said her gift "pales in comparison with the gift that Yale gave me the fundamental understanding that leadership requires an expansive worldview and a deep appreciation of the many points of intersection between business and society."

"Business issues are never just business issues, and my most ardent hope is that this endowment will teach future generations of leaders that the most successful companies of tomorrow will do more than make money," she said in a statement.

"They will make a difference and create shareholder value by improving the quality of life in every market in which they operate," she said.

Nooyi joins several prominent persons of Indian-origin who have donated generously to US universities.

In October last year, Nooyi's sister and Grammy-nominated musician Chandrika Tandon and her husband Ranjan had made a 100 million dollar gift to the New York University's School of Engineering, one of the largest philanthropic gifts by a member of the Indian-American community.

In 2010, Harvard Business School had received a gift of $50 million from Tata Companies.

Industrialist Ratan Tata had attended the School's Advanced Management Programme in 1975.

The gift will also be used to inaugurate the Fifth Decade Innovation Fund, which isnamed in recognition of the fact that the school is entering its fifth decade; the first class entered the Yale School of Management in 1976.

The fund is an ambitious initiative designed to advance the school's aim of developing leaders with the broad global mindset and multi-disciplinary approach to business that is needed to succeed in 21st-century capitalism.

It will be open to additional substantial contributions that can help the school develop the technology and other infrastructure to support these and future initiatives.