Villanova University has announced a $50 million gift to its business school from James and Kim Davis.

The largest gift ever received by the Catholic university was awarded as part of a recently announced $600 million capital campaign, For the Greater Great, which aims to cultivate academic innovation across the university's schools and colleges by investing in recruiting and retaining top teacher-scholars, enhancing financial aid and student opportunities, and building a premier living-learning environment on its 260-acre campus. Awarded through the Davis Family Foundation, the gift will be used to establish Davis Family Funds for student enrichment, scholarship, and strategic and capital initiatives at the Villanova School of Business.

The chairman and co-founder of staffing-services firm Allegis Group and a Villanova trustee, Davis and his wife have supported several initiatives at the university, including men's basketball, the Men's Basketball Endowed Fund, unrestricted annual giving, and the President's Contingency Fund. During the university's most recent capital campaign, which concluded in 2007, he and his brother, fellow alumnus Bill Davis, gave $10 million in support of an intercollegiate athletics and recreation facility and to create the Davis Foundation Athletic Facility Maintenance Endowment.

"Villanova's leadership continues to navigate the university to new and exciting heights, and this campaign will help to assure an even brighter future," said James Davis. "A Villanova education builds leaders, and the university's role in helping develop these leadership qualities compels Villanovans to want to give back. As someone who gained so much through his time as a business student at Villanova, I believe in this university, and this trust led Kim and me to want to invest in its future."