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Gift from Rick McVey ’81 fueling construction of innovative new facility
By Josh Chapin, associate director of content
Miami University alumnus Rick McVey ’81 returned to campus on Oct. 25 as part of the groundbreaking ceremony for the Richard M. McVey Data Science Building.
A $20 million gift from McVey – one of the top five largest single gifts in Miami’s history – is funding the project. The event is archived and available for viewing for those who were unable to attend.
McVey spoke at the ceremony, along with Miami University President Greg Crawford, Miami Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Jason Osborne, David Budig ’84, student Allison Riley ’22 and Mary Schell ’87. Budig is chair of Miami's Board of Trustees and Schell is vice chair.
Tom Herbert, senior vice president of University Advancement, emceed the event.
McVey graduated from Miami with a degree in finance and went on to found MarketAxess, a leading electronic trading platform for institutional investors and dealers, in 2000. McVey is chairman and CEO.
“We are extremely excited for what the future will bring with the Richard M. McVey Data Science Building,” Herbert said. “Rick’s generosity and passion for helping our students is creating an innovative, collaborative environment that will bring Miami to the front of an increasingly important field.”
McVey’s support of Miami extends beyond the data science building. A former men’s golf student-athlete, McVey helped endow scholarships for that program as well as for students of the Farmer School of Business. McVey was named to the 2020 Philanthropy 50 list by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
The McVey Data Science Building will bring together multiple disciplines, housing the departments of Emerging Technology in Business + Design, Statistics and Computer Science and Software Engineering as well as the Center for Analytics and Data Science (CADS). It will also feature a strong partnership with the Farmer School of Business’ Department of Information Systems and Analytics.