Tanoto Foundation Collaborates with INSEAD to Support Renovation of Learning Facilities at Asia and Europe Campuses

Tanoto Foundation today announced the inauguration of the Tanoto Research and Learning Hub (TLRH) at the Asia Campus of leading global business school INSEAD. The Foundation’s support for the new state of the art learning facility in Singapore is part of its efforts to help develop the next generation of leaders working across both East and West.

(From left to right) Ms Inge Sanitasia Kusuma, Country Head of Tanoto Foundation Indonesia, Mr Anderson Tanoto, Member of the Board of Trustees, Tanoto Foundation, Professor Francisco Veloso, Dean of INSEAD, and Ms Yuhanis Yusoff, Head of Tanoto Research and Learning Hub, at the inauguration of the Tanoto Research and Learning Hub, INSEAD Asia Campus

This follows the recent opening last month of the newly renovated Euro-Asia Centre (EAC) at the INSEAD Europe Campus in Fontainebleau, France. The redevelopment of the learning facilities at the two campuses was supported by a donation of €3.5 million (S$5.1 million) from Tanoto Foundation to INSEAD.

INSEAD is one of the world’s leading business schools with campuses in France, Singapore, the Middle East and the U.S. The school offers Master in Management (MIM), MBA, Global Executive MBA, Executive Master of Finance, Executive Master in Change, as well as executive education programmes, which are consistently ranked among the best in the world. INSEAD has 66,641 alumni, of whom about 20% are from countries in Asia, including Singapore.

The redevelopment of the Tanoto Research and Learning Hub in Singapore and the Euro-Asia Centre in Fontainebleau is designed to provide students with effective platforms and the resources to spur further innovation and research. The donation is the latest milestone in a partnership between INSEAD and Tanoto Foundation that goes back more than 40 years.

Mr Anderson Tanoto, Member of the Board of Trustees, Tanoto Foundation, speaks at the inauguration of the Tanoto Research and Learning Hub, INSEAD Asia Campus

Anderson Tanoto, Member of the Board of Trustees, Tanoto Foundation, said: “We have chosen to support these initiatives because of our belief and confidence in INSEAD and its leadership, and because of the alignment in values between our two institutions, particularly our belief in the importance of lifelong learning. Both INSEAD and Tanoto Foundation strongly believe in the transformative power of education and in the importance of building closer ties between Asia and Europe”.

Professor Francisco Veloso, Dean of INSEAD, said: “On behalf of the INSEAD community, I would like to express my thanks to the Tanoto Foundation for their unwavering support and trust in INSEAD. This generous contribution will transform the learning ecosystems at our campuses into models of innovation and learning, fostering the growth of future business leaders and inspiring our dedicated faculty and staff.”

The Tanoto Research and Learning Hub (TRLH) has been revamped to provide a flexible design, using sustainable resources, to enable students to focus on shared learning and access to data. Specific improvements include integrated smart library technology, access to powerful financial databases and a new staircase inspired by the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

The Euro-Asia Centre (EAC) was established by INSEAD as a teaching facility in 1982, with the support of industrial partners including Tanoto Foundation, to strengthen ties between the school and Asia. The EAC has been renovated with enhanced sustainability and future-readiness. The renovation is in line with the wider renewal of INSEAD’s Europe Campus and will adhere to strict French sustainability standards.

The main hall at the new EAC – the biggest and most frequented space in the Centre at close to 500m in size – has been named ‘The Tanoto Foyer’. Also, in recognition of Tanoto Foundation’s commitment to INSEAD, the Amphi 1 lecture hall in the Plessis Mornay Building, another major learning centre on campus, has been renamed the ‘Tanoto Foundation Amphitheatre’.

For over 40 years, the Tanoto family has been a patron and partner of INSEAD. The family’s support for the EAC was among the first joint initiatives between the family and INSEAD, when the school was just beginning its expansion to Asia. The Tanoto family continued to play a significant role in INSEAD’s growth in Asia, providing generous funding for the school’s Asia campus from 2003.