Villanova University has received a $25 million gift from Justin Gmelich ’90 VSB and his wife, Victoria, to the University’s comprehensive capital campaign, Espiritus Nova: The Campaign for Villanova University. Justin Gmelich, co-chief investment officer at Millennium Management, serves as a current co-chair of the Espiritus Nova campaign.

The Gmelichs’ latest gift will provide significant funding for the Victoria and Justin Gmelich ’90 Lab for Financial Markets, named in 2019 and located in the Villanova School of Business, as well as for Falvey Library’s Distinctive Collections, which moved to a new home following the opening of Vic Maggitti Hall in October.

“For more than three decades, Victoria and Justin have been incredibly generous and loyal members of the Villanova community, and I am deeply grateful for their continued commitment to our University,” said Villanova University President the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, PhD. “Their gift will make a lasting difference for our students through two significant academic projects at the Villanova School of Business and Falvey Library in the new Vic Maggitti Hall. I am deeply grateful for their leadership of the Espiritus Nova campaign, but even more so for the faith they continue to place in Villanova, our mission and our students.”

The gift will provide a new infusion of funding for the Victoria and Justin Gmelich ’90 Lab for Financial Markets. This state-of-the-art financial lab affords students and faculty the opportunity to study and research in an environment parallel to a Wall Street trading floor, with greater exposure to the latest technology used in finance, real estate, analytics and management information systems. Throughout the lab, students work with high-processing computers equipped with access to Bloomberg and other financial databases.

Their gift will also name the Gmelich Family Gallery in the new library at the heart of the Villanova Campus. The gallery in Vic Maggitti Hall will house a number of historic documents related to the Civil Rights Movement, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. The Gmelichs played a key role in bringing the document to Villanova in 2021 when Justin was serving as chair of the Board of Trustees.

“During my time as a Villanova student, a moment with a faculty member had a lasting impact on me and in charting my future,” said Gmelich. “That moment demonstrated to me how critical classroom opportunities are to student success, and it’s one of the many reasons Victoria and I are so committed to supporting educational opportunities at the University.”

About Victoria and Justin Gmelich ’90 VSB: Justin, a 1990 graduate of the Villanova School of Business, is a co-chair of the University’s Espiritus Nova campaign. He has also served as chair of the Board of Trustees and as chair of the Board’s Investment Committee. Justin is currently co-chief investment officer at Millennium Management, a global diversified alternative investment firm headquartered in New York City. Prior to his role at Millennium Management, he was partner and head of Global Markets at King Street Capital. Before that, he served as global chief operating officer for Fixed Income, Commodities and Currencies (FICC) at Goldman Sachs, where he was a member of the firm’s Management Committee, Firmwide Risk Committee, Securities Division Executive Committee, Securities Division Volcker Committee and the Global Recruiting Council. Earlier in his career, Justin was an associate trader at Chase and a vice president at Salomon Brothers. Victoria developed a successful career trading mortgage derivatives on Wall Street, which she left to be home with her six children and manage the household. She now dedicates her time to providing expanded educational opportunities for young women and is co-founder of Trinity Hall, an all-girls private high school in Tinton Falls, N.J., among many other philanthropic endeavors. Victoria graduated from Dartmouth College, where she was a student-athlete and later served as a member of the Dartmouth Athletics Advisory Board. She earned her MBA from Columbia Business School in 1995.

Espiritus Nova: The Campaign for Villanova University reflects the strong, generous and unshakeable spirit that connects all Villanovans. Launched in October 2024 with a goal of $1.25 billion, it marks the most ambitious fundraising effort in the University’s history. Achieving this goal will strengthen Villanova’s academic preeminence, enrich the campus and amplify the University’s collective Augustinian Catholic impact—across the nation and around the world. The campaign is focused on three main goals: meeting financial need; research and scholarship; and campus investment. For more information on Espiritus Nova: The Campaign for Villanova University, visit the Villanova campaign website at: www.espiritusnova.com

About Villanova University: Since 1842, Villanova University’s Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition has been the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University’s six colleges—the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering, the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing, the College of Professional Studies and the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. Ranked among the nation’s top universities, Villanova supports its students’ intellectual growth and prepares them to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them. For more, visit www.villanova.edu.

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