UMass Amherst is set to receive its largest-ever private donation — $50 million over 10 years — and will rename its engineering college after the former Apple executive and UMass alumnus who made the gift.
Daniel Riccio, a 1986 graduate of the university’s flagship campus and one of Apple’s top former hardware executives, committed the donation to support the engineering school and foster partnerships with other areas of the university. Riccio and his wife, Diane M. (Casey) Riccio, pledged $15 million in 2022 to fund ALS and neuroscience research at UMass Chan Medical School.
“As a proud alum, I’ve seen UMass Amherst, including its College of Engineering, become a world-class institution over the past 20 years,” Riccio said in a statement. “While UMass has come a long way, I believe it has untapped potential. With the right level of investment and support, its best days are yet to come.”
The University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees voted unanimously early Monday morning to rename the College of Engineering as the Daniel J. Riccio Jr. College of Engineering.
The bulk of the donation — $40 million — will fund a permanent endowment. Of that, $10 million will support undergraduate scholarships, $5 million will be allocated for graduate fellowships, and $12 million will go toward recruiting and retaining eight faculty members. An additional $5 million will fund a deanship, $3 million will support a chair in biomedical engineering, and $5 million will establish a research innovation fund to support faculty fellowships, with an emphasis on cross-disciplinary collaboration.
The remaining $10 million will be used to create a catalyst fund, which UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes said will “provide flexible support for the Daniel J. Riccio Jr. College of Engineering’s highest priorities.” These priorities include researching the intersection of technology and health through partnerships with UMass Chan Medical School, developing a design curriculum in collaboration with the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, and creating an engineering leadership program in partnership with the Isenberg School of Management.
Riccio recently retired from Apple after a 26-year career there. According to UMass, he “built Apple’s Product Design team and developed its world-class product development process leading the team to deliver category defining products including the iMac, iPhone and iPad.”
Riccio holds an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in manufacturing engineering from the UMass Amherst. He worked at Compaq and Digital Equipment Corporation before joining Apple. The Riccios live Marblehead and Atherton, California.
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