TORONTO — Dr. Steve and Rashmi Gupta have donated $1 million to Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) in support of Ted Rogers School of Management and its students through The Gupta Family Foundation. The donation provides endowed financial awards to the school’s MBA students in hospitality and tourism management, as well as crucial unrestricted support, allowing the dean to focus on priority needs.
The donation to TMU’s business school aligns with Dr. Gupta’s success as a developer, hotelier, business leader and philanthropist. Dr. Gupta arrived in Canada in 1971 with $108 to his name. By 2000, his company, Easton’s Group of Hotels, was honoured with the Company of the Year Pinnacle Award from Hotelier magazine. Dr. Gupta was voted Businessman of the Year by the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce and has received the Queen’s Golden & Diamond Jubilee Medal for community service; the Markham Board of Trade Award of Excellence in Business and Entrepreneurship; and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Ontario in the Real Estate and Hotels category. Most recently, he was appointed to the Order of Ontario in 2022.
Furthermore, TMU is recognizing the Gupta family’s generosity through the naming of the Ted Rogers School’s premier auditorium The Steve & Rashmi Gupta Lecture Theatre. At 500 seats, the venue is TMU’s largest lecture theatre and is used for business classes and for instruction in disciplines across the university. In the winter of 2025, two MBA students will receive the first Gupta Family Foundation Award, the first of an ongoing series of awards providing financial support to two MBA students each year in perpetuity.
Dr. Steve and Rashmi Gupta have a long-standing reputation for investing in philanthropic causes locally and around the world. Together, they’ve held eye camps in India, allowing more than 11,000 people to have cataract eye treatments and be cured of eye disease, and developed a water and sanitation project for a girl’s school in India. They’ve also spearheaded the construction of a retirement community in Richmond Hill, Ont. and continue to see through a long-term commitment to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) with the TIFF Bell Lightbox box office officially named the Steve and Rashmi Gupta Box Office.
“I’m a great believer in higher education,” says Dr. Steve Gupta, founder and chairman of The Gupta Group. “Learning is like breathing – it should never stop. My family and I believe in giving back to our local community and creating opportunities for others to pursue their dreams of success. We’re delighted to work with TMU to help make those dreams come true for students. We share with TMU a desire to help people build the skills that shape self-reliance.”
“The Ted Rogers School has one of the most diverse student populations of any business school in Canada,” says Dr. Cynthia Holmes, Dean, Ted Rogers School of Management. “More than 50 per cent of our students identify as racialized and 30 per cent are first in their family to attend university. A gift like this, from a family rooted in the newcomer experience and earning their success in Canadian business, has special resonance for our community of learners. We’re very grateful to the Gupta family for investing in the future of our students.”
