Leadership 100

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Michael Psaros Makes Transformative Gift to Georgetown University to Launch the Preeminent Center on Financial Markets and Policy

Psaros Center

Michael G. and Robin Psaros have committed $11 million to the newly renamed Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy at Georgetown University, the preeminent destination for unbiased expertise at the intersection of finance and policy. Psaros, who is a Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of KPS Capital Partners, LP., is a member of the Leadership 100 Board of Trustees.

Psaros stated: “My family is humbled and excited to invest in Georgetown, and in doing so, give back to a country that has provided us with so many opportunities…I am who I am today because of the values and value system that I learned from my family, the Holy Orthodox Church, and Georgetown University. Every time my wife, my family, and I contribute to Georgetown in any way, it is a celebration of those values. Our work begins today to build a better world.”

The Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy will host world-class convenings, bringing together market participants, policymakers, and leading academics to provide solutions for emerging challenges in global finance. The Psaros Center will also benefit from the experience of the most accomplished industry and policy leaders, supported by the gift’s funding for Visiting Distinguished Fellows and a Fellows Excellence Fund. Georgetown University is the intellectual center of the most powerful city in the world. Because of its standing and credibility in Washington, Georgetown is uniquely positioned to provide unbiased, non-partisan, objective expertise to guide policy and practice. The Psaros Center will convene leaders across the private and public sectors and act as an intellectual honest broker, a facilitator, and an educator.

Dr. Reena Aggarwal, Robert E. McDonough Professor of Finance and Director of the Psaros Center remarked: “Mike’s gift is going to be transformation in allowing the Center to fulfill its ambition and in enhancing Georgetown’s ability to provide thought leadership that directly impacts financial policy now and in the future. The Center will provide expertise and research that will impact both market practices and policymaking. The financial sector has a direct impact on job innovation, job creation, economic growth and hence the global society.”

Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia said: “This is an extraordinary moment for Georgetown, for our McDonough School of Business—but also for our nation—as we think about the kind of work, analysis, scholarship, and research that this new center will enable us to do. Mike brings an extraordinary passion to everything that he does, especially his service to Georgetown. He has a vision for the work that we can accomplish, and he helps us to bring that vision to life.”

“With this gift,” said Paul Almeida, Dean and William R. Berkley Chair at Georgetown McDonough, “we will be on the path to be one of the best centers for financial markets related to policy in the world. We are grateful to the Psaros family for this transformational gift to achieve even more….Mike is such a positive force for faculty, for deans, and for staff leadership.”

Psaros, a graduate of Georgetown University, now serves on the University’s Board of Directors, and is Vice Chairman of the Executive Board of Advisors of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

The Psaros Family, in the presence of His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, made a $3.1 million gift in October 2021 to establish “The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Endowed Orthodox Chaplaincy, Endowed by the Michael Psaros Family.” This is the first fully endowed chaplain’s position in the University’s Campus Ministry program. He and his wife, Robin, also made a $250,000 gift to the university in 2019 to the sacred space at Copley Crypt where Orthodox Christian vespers, liturgies and Catholic Masses are held. This gift funded Orthodox icons and iconostasis. In addition, the Psaros Family made a $3 million gift to create the “Michael and Robin Psaros Endowed Chair in Business Administration” at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business in 2013.

Michael G. Psaros was invested as an Archon on October 19, 2014. He is a member of the National Council of the Order of St. Andrew and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Foundation. He serves as Vice Chairman of the Friends of St. Nicholas, the organization responsible for the construction of the St. Nicholas National Shrine at Ground Zero. He has served as the Treasurer of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and currently serves on the Executive Committee of its Archdiocesan Council. He is also a founding member of FAITH: An Endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism, serves on the Executive Board of The Hellenic Initiative, and is a member of AHEPA.

Michael Psaros with his wife Robin and their children Alexandra, Marina and Leo