Global business leader Andrew N. Liveris is spearheading an extraordinary effort to provide $40 million to support University of Queensland (UQ) innovation and leadership initiatives across the state and around the world.
UQ alumnus Mr Liveris and his wife, Mrs Paula Liveris, have donated $13.5 million to help establish the Liveris Academy in the University’s Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology (EAIT). They have also pledged to raise an additional $26.5 million dollars to support UQ’s Not If, When philanthropic campaign.
UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Høj said the academy would be housed in the Andrew N. Liveris Building, an 11-storey engineering education and research hub to be built at the St Lucia campus. “Naming the building after Mr Liveris is a fitting acknowledgement of one of UQ’s most successful alumni, honouring his exceptional career and his role as a consistent, visible and enthusiastic advocate for UQ,” 
Professor Høj said.
“The Liveris Academy will teach and develop future generations of leaders, equipping them to discover and implement technology driven innovations that address grand challenges related to sustainability in a time of dramatic social, technological, economic and environmental change.”
Mr Liveris said he was delighted that the Liveris building would provide a new home for chemical engineering and related disciplines at UQ. “Paula and I hope the Liveris Academy will attract, support and develop many of the planet’s smartest young people and finest minds in engineering and science, enabling them to reach their full potential while addressing major challenges facing society today,” he said.
Professor Høj said the initiative bolstered UQ’s efforts to empower student success, transform teaching and learning and drive discovery and impact through the Not If, When campaign, and was the largest contribution to the campaign to date. “This gift will create leadership and change-making opportunities for students who might otherwise have had limited access to higher education,” he said.
A rigorous selection process for the Liveris Academy will identify promising students with leadership potential and a passion to address sustainability issues involving clean water, safe food and modern energy services.
Mr Liveris – who is Chairman and CEO, The Dow Chemical Company and Director and Former Executive Chairman, DowDuPont – said he hoped the donation, initiative and building housing cross-disciplinary activity, would allow students to garner a real-life understanding that many global challenges required large-scale innovation and leadership to create positive change for society.
Andrew N. Liveris
Mr Liveris holds a UQ Bachelor of Engineering (honours, 1975) and a Doctor of Science honoris causa (2005). He is president and founder of The University of Queensland in America Foundation, and was named UQ Alumnus of the Year in 2005.
In addition to his work at Dow, Mr Liveris’ breadth of experience and expertise is broadly represented across business, government, academic and non-profit sectors, including as a member of the Board of Directors of IBM, as Vice Chair of the Business Roundtable, an Executive Committee Member and Past Chairman of the US Business Council, and a member of the Concordia Leadership Council, the Australian government’s Industry Growth Centres Advisory Committee and a Trustee of the California Institute of Technology.