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>From NashvillePost.com, by the way.
Billionaire revealed as UT's top donor
By Drew Ruble
University of Tennessee officials have revealed that alumnus Dr. Min H. Kao is the man who gave the school $12.5 million for the construction of a new a $37.5 million engineering building on the UT campus.
Together with a separate $5 million matching gift to support the department's endowment, Kao's $17.5 million gift is the largest in the school's history.
Kao is the co-founder of Garmin Ltd., a designer and builder of navigation and communication equipment such as global positioning systems. The company went public in 2000 and employs 2,600 people around the world.
Forbes magazine recently listed Kao as the 507th wealthiest person in the world with an estimated worth of $1.3 billion.
Earlier this year the Tennessee General Assembly approved Gov. Phil Bredesen's recommendation to allocate $25 million for a new College of Engineering building at the University of Tennessee.
Bredesen prioritized funding for that project because it furthers his goal of fostering greater public-private partnerships for the construction of higher education buildings in the state.
A Taiwanese native who received both his masters and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from UT in the 1970s, Kao co-founded Kansas-based Garmin in 1989. The company has operations in Arizona, Kansas, Oregon, England and Taiwan.
Both the engineering department and the new building will be named in Kao's honor.
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