Alumni | Haskins Giving Society Award Dinner

The annual Haskins Award Dinner is one of NYU Stern's most esteemed and longest-standing events. Since the inaugural dinner in 1980, held at Fifth Avenue's famed St. Regis Hotel, this event has honored the School's most generous donors and the recipient of the Charles Waldo Haskins Award, recognized for outstanding achievement in business and public service.

Andre J.L. Koo (MBA '94) and his family have longstanding ties to the Stern School, ties that include alumni from three generations of the Koo family—Mr. Koo’s father, the late Dr. Jeffrey Koo (MBA ’62); Mr. Koo himself; and his sons, Andre Koo Jr. (BS ’18) and Matthew Koo (BS ’24)—and a munificent philanthropic legacy including scholarships and an endowed faculty chair. In 2015, Stern honored Mr. Koo and his family during a dedication ceremony for the Andre J.L. Koo Lobby, a high-traffic hub at the School which, thanks to the support of the Koo family, was transformed into a modern convening place for the Stern community.

Less than two years later, Stern named its innovative one-year specialized MBA program the Andre Koo Technology and Entrepreneurship MBA Program in recognition of yet another landmark gift from Mr. Koo and his wife, Jana. Today, this program, which represented a new category of focused MBA programs, is one of Stern’s most popular; applications have increased nearly 120% since launch; the class has been at or near gender-parity since inception; and most cohorts achieved a record-breaking 100% employment rate within three months of graduation.

Mr. Koo has served as a member of the Stern Executive Board since 2012, and, in July 2019, became the first internationally-based business leader to serve as the Board Chair. His commitment to NYU extends beyond Stern; apart from being a member of the NYU Board of Trustees since 2013, he also founded, and is currently president of, the NYU Pan-Asia Alumni Association. Mr. Koo is also a member of the President’s Global Council, and president of the NYU Alumni Club in Taiwan.

Mr. Koo is chairman of Chailease Group, which is comprised of the publicly listed financial services company, Chailease Holding, and subsidiaries that are engaged in a diverse range of industries including direct investment, online fund trading platform, commercial trading, real estate development, interior design, hospitality, food and beverage, property management, security services, biomedical products, and distribution of wine and sake.

Founded in 1977, Chailease Holding is the market leader of leasing and installment sales in Taiwan, a top solar energy developer in the country, and the largest foreign-owned independent leasing company in China. Chailease Holding has operations in Taiwan, United States, Thailand, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Indonesia.