A major boost for recruiting top doctors

James M. Allwin, president of Aetos Capital, LLC, an investment management firm based in New York, has donated $10 million to the School of Medicine to attract more of the world’s best clinicians and clinical researchers to Yale.

Allwin, a resident of Greenwich, Conn., who serves on the board of the Yale New Haven Health System and on the advisory board of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, says that his gift mirrors the philosophy he employs in his business: “It’s my hope that by investing in world-class practitioners, both the medical school and hospital can achieve their strategic objectives.”

The development of the school’s clinical mission—the patient care provided by medical school faculty—has been a top priority for Dean and Ensign Professor of Medicine Robert J. Alpern, M.D., since he began his work at the School of Medicine in 2004. “The faculty at Yale are excellent doctors,” Alpern says, “but in many cases we don’t have a sufficient number of them to provide the best service to our local and more national constituency. There are also a number of areas in which we would like to expand our clinical expertise.”

Alpern believes that the medical school and its primary teaching affiliate, Yale-New Haven Hospital, both stand to gain by the new gift. “It will allow us to bring outstanding clinicians and clinical researchers to the faculty who will advance the clinical practice at Yale School of Medicine while also advancing the hospital.”

For David J. Leffell, M.D., deputy dean for clinical affairs, the Allwin gift is a godsend for building Yale’s medical services. “At a time when all academic health care centers are under enormous financial pressure,” he says, “James Allwin’s generosity, specifically designated for clinical excellence, will allow us to continue to build our practice in breadth, depth and quality.”

As an old hand at investing, Allwin has a well-honed appreciation of the power of compounding, and he hopes that over the coming years the benefits of his gift for both the hospital and medical school will grow exponentially. “World-class practitioners attract colleagues and counterparts, and could have an impact on both institutions,” he says. “The strategic leverage that comes from a gift like this is many times the value of the gift itself.”