June 09, 2006

Gift of the Week - Mike B. Fernandez donates $ 5 million to his high school alma mater

Wall Street Journal, June 9, 2006 highlights A Head-of-the Class Gift. Largest donation in the history of Xavier High School in New York.

In 1964, when he was 12, Mr. Fernandez, now chairman of MBF Healthcare Partners, a private-equity firm in Coral Gables, Fla., fled Cuba with his family.  They eventually settled in Manhattan's Upper West Side, where the young Mr. Fernandez attended parochial school.  He says he was impressed by the demeanor and military bearing of a Xavier High School student who lived nearby (the Jesuit-run school at the time offered a military-style education, with uniforms; that dress is now optional).  His father allowed him to attend Xavier provided he could pay part of the tuition.  Mr. Fernandez raised the money through part-time jobs, taking care of research animals at a psychiatric institute after school and selling souvenirs outside a museum on weekends.  Mr. Fernandez, now 53 years old, recalls that he was "a below-average student" at Xavier, mainly because he wasn't wholly fluent in English at the time, and also often found himself in detention for minor offenses.


After he graduated from Xavier in 1972, Mr. Fernandez attended the University of New Mexico briefly, then was drafted into the Army.  After his discharge he relocated to South Florida, where he still lives.  Mr. Fernandez built his fortune in the health-care field, buying troubled HMOs and other companies, reorganizing and then reselling them.  In the last few years, he has donated $55 million to a number of charities, including the United Way of Miami-Dade County, Miami Children's Hospital Foundation, the University of Miami/Sylvester Cancer Center and that university's business school.  He had given some money to his high school alma mater in the past, but when the school's president, the Rev. Daniel Gatti, approached him earlier this year about giving more, Mr. Fernandez decided to make the largest donation in Xavier's history (the previous one was $1 million).


The 300-seat auditorium will be built in the school's quadrangle, a place where the young Mr. Fernandez spent many an afternoon on detention.


                                                                 --Sally Beatty and Robert J. Hughes

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