The gift is intended solely for Wharton School, which comprises undergraduate, MBA, PhD, and executive education programs. Unlike other sizable donations, Huntman's gift has not been designated for any particular facet of the school. "In my mind, a gift is not a gift if there are strings attached," says Huntsman. "I've talked to the school about everything from scholarship funding to setting up chaired professorships to building new facilities...but my preeminent concern is that Wharton continue to focus on areas of academic excellence."

Wharton officials aren't rushing to decide what they'll do with the school's newfound wealth. Instead, over the next several months, they'll evaluate the school's priorities. It's a safe bet, however, that Wharton will be plugging some of the gift into funding business-oriented research and hiring new faculty. "There is a possibility of a naming," said Robert Mittelstaedt, vice-dean of Executive Education & External Affairs at Wharton, "but we're still in the reviewing stage right now." Huntsman won't be kept in the dark for long, however: He'll monitor how the school decides to appropriate his donation from his seat on Wharton's Board of Overseers, a group of alumni who review the school's programs and activities.

Huntsman's gift caps an intense fund-raising effort that has brought more than $150 million into Wharton's coffers in less than two years -- a figure that only the likes of Harvard can compete with. As a result, the 120-year old school is raising its profile both domestically and abroad, and is enjoying unprecedented popularity. The school has consistently placed in the top five in business school rankings (including consecutive No. 1 finishes in the last two Business Week tallies) and has seen applications soar over the last decade. In fact, this year more than 8,100 students have applied to its MBA program alone, the highest in the program's history.

After earning his BBA at Wharton in 1959, Huntsman went on to become CEO of the largest privately held chemical company in the U.S., with annual revenues in excess of $5 billion. He got his start in 1970, when he founded with his brother a small container company, Huntsman Container Corp., which produced polysterene products. The company's claim to fame was developing the material used in the now ubiquitous "clamshell" fast-food container. Huntsman sold the company in 1978 for a major gain.

His biggest coup came in the early 1980s with the founding of Huntsman Chemical, which produces polysterene, polypropylene, and various plastic resin compounds. Over the last five years, Huntsman has greatly expanded through a series of acquisitions, including Texaco Chemical, Noval Chemical's polypropylene business, Baker Performance Chemical, and Rexene. Huntsman Chemical now has businesses at 81 sites worldwide.

No stranger to humanitarian causes, Huntsman has donated more than $200 million of his wealth to charities and institutions throughout the world. In 1995, he contributed $100 million to the University of Utah's Eccles Institute of Human Genetics to establish the Huntsman Cancer Institute.