Alumnus gives £1.4 million for Fitzwilliam College Library & IT Centre

Fitzwilliam College has announced a gift of £1.4 million from alumnus Ken Olisa and his wife, Julia. The gift, to support the College’s new Library & IT Centre, reflects Ken Olisa’s life-long passion for information technology and education.

Fitzwilliam College has announced a gift of £1.4 million from alumnus Ken Olisa and his wife, Julia. The gift, to support the College’s new Library & IT Centre, reflects Ken Olisa’s life-long passion for information technology and education.

Ken, who came up to Fitzwilliam in 1971, read Natural, Social, Political and Management Sciences and started his career with IBM and Wang before setting up listed technology merchant bank, Interregnum, and, more recently, Restoration Partners.

Ken Olisa said: "My time at Fitzwilliam was transformative for a state school boy from the poor streets of Nottingham. The College’s welcoming and egalitarian atmosphere and Cambridge’s academic excellence gave me the privileged experiences which underpin my career.”

A respected City figure, he was the first British-born black man to serve on the board of a major UK public company. He was appointed Master of the Information Technologists’ Livery Company in 2010 and is a director of Thomson Reuters. His energy and integrity were recognised with his appointment to the board of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority in 2009, and he was awarded the OBE in 2010 for his charity work with London’s homeless.

Ken is also a founding member of Fitzwilliam’s Campaign Council, which helps guide the College’s growth and progress as it nears its 150th anniversary in 2019. The first goal of the campaign was achieved in 2010 when the new Library & IT Centre, designed by Edward Cullinan Architects, was opened by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh.

“It seems only right to repay some of that privilege by helping Fitz and its students to achieve their potential. Pleasurable study is at the heart of the Cambridge experience and so supporting the stunning new library is the perfect way to give back. Being associated with a facility which has so quickly become the envy of so many is welcome icing on the cake!” Ken said.

Master of Fitzwilliam College, Professor Robert Lethbridge, welcoming news of the Olisa donation, said: "Fitzwilliam students, who work in Cambridge’s most modern college library, can take great pride in this gift from one of their own. Ken was elected student president in 1973 and remains wholeheartedly involved in the College’s development."

The Governing Body has agreed to recognise Ken’s generosity by electing him as an 1869 Fellow Benefactor. This honour may be bestowed on any supporter who has shown ’exceptional munificence towards the College’, and is so called by virtue of the date of Fitzwilliam’s original foundation.