Yale University has announced a $16 million endowment gift from the Starr Foundation in support of its Yale World Fellows program.

With the aim of cultivating and empowering a global network of community leaders committed to building a better world, the program brings talented mid-career professionals from around the world to study, participate in immersive leadership development activities, and interact with talented peers. Since its launch in 2002, the program, which will be renamed the Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellows Program, in honor of the foundation's chair, has hosted two hundred and seventy-five fellows from eighty-four countries.

Greenberg, his wife, Corinne, and the Starr Foundation first provided support for the program in 2006 as part of a larger gift supporting Yale's international initiatives, and followed that with an additional $15 million gift in 2010 for the program's operations and endowment. With their latest gift, the Greenbergs' giving to Yale now totals more than $100 million, including support for the Greenberg Scholars Program and the Maurice R. Greenberg Conference Center.

"The World Fellows program has always interested me because it unites and educates some of the brightest minds of our age," said Greenberg. "These will be tomorrow's leaders in government, business, and academia, and they have a role to play in securing a world that is peaceful, just, and flourishing."