Rokos will provide an initial £130m in funding to the university, plus an extra £60m that will be matched by the university to create what will be known as the Rokos School of Government.
Rokos is a 55-year-old British investor and philanthropist who lives in the UK and founded global multi-asset investment fund Rokos Capital Management.
According to The Sunday Times Rich List, external, he is worth an estimated £2.6bn. He is also one of the UK’s biggest tax payers, according to the paper’s annual tax list.
He won a scholarship to Eton College after attending a state primary school, and studied mathematics at Pembroke College, Oxford. He previously provided financial support for scholarships at Eton and initiatives linked to Pembroke College.
Speaking about his donation, Rokos said: “I was fortunate to be given the opportunity of an education which transformed my life, and I would like to give something back to Britain. My hope is that, in time, the influence of the Rokos School of Government across the world becomes an important element of that soft power which has been a great asset to the UK.”
He said the discussions to create this new institution began several years ago, with Dr Elisabeth Kendall, who is the President of Girton College, and was friends with Rokos when they were undergraduates together in Oxford.
He said detailed conversations between them led to a shared recognition of the need to prepare leaders of the future to be able to face new challenges.
“It was becoming clear that the world was changing in new and different ways, and that the processes of government needed to adapt accordingly. For me, there can be no better home for the Rokos School of Government than Cambridge University with its long tradition of scientific innovation and synergistic culture”, he added.