Glen Urban

Glen Urban is dean emeritus and David Austin Professor of Marketing at the MIT Sloan School of Management. An MIT professor of marketing for his entire career, he recently retired from teaching but will continue his groundbreaking market research. He serves as chairman of the MIT Center for Digital Business and has cofounded five marketing companies. For 35 years, he has also been a sculptor. “I find that the process by which you create a mathematical research model is very analogous to creating a sculpture,” he says.

I considered making a gift to MIT, but there was a risk that I might need the money myself for retirement because of falling interest rates and increasing health costs. However, if I waited for 20 years, I would not get the pleasure of giving MIT a gift now. Establishing a unitrust resolved the conflict. You get 5 percent of the fair market value of the trust as income each year for as long as you and your spouse live, and the trust will be invested in MIT’s endowment. The endowment maintains a value-oriented investment approach, provides highly qualified investment managers, and strives to generate high real rates of return by partaking in the long-term returns of high-quality businesses. It’s a good way to diversify your portfolio. Ultimately, this gift will support a fellowship in marketing at MIT Sloan. I’ve been at MIT for 46 years and prospered in MIT’s creative and rigorous environment. The unitrust was a chance for me to give to the institution that gave me so much over my career. When it comes to my philanthropic plan, MIT is at the top of my list.”

Gifts to MIT support future generations.
Donors can establish trusts invested in the MIT endowment and benefit from its diversified investment portfolio. The income paid by such trusts has the potential to increase over time as the endowment does.