Panera Bread founder gives $5M to Clark

Courtesy/Clark University Ronald Shaich, founder, chairman and CEO of Panera Bread.

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By Laura Finaldi

The family of the founder, chairman and CEO of sandwich chain Panera Bread donated $5 million to Clark University, a gift that the school said helped boost the public launch of a $125-million capital campaign.

Ronald Shaich, who graduated from Clark in 1976, said he donated in order to help students succeed. Money from the full campaign, called “Now is Our Time,” will support student scholarships, faculty scholarship and creative work, facilities, endowed professorships, and other functions.

So far, the campaign has raised $101 million of the $125 million goal, according to a Tuesday press release from Clark.

Shaich said he was initially attracted to Clark because it had a spirit of political activism and felt like it was a place where students were encouraged to affect change.

His education “was less about what happened in the classroom every day, and more about directed readings, internships, and mentoring from faculty who helped me to learn and to grow and to explore who I was, what I really enjoyed doing, and what mattered to me in my life,” he said.

As a thank you, the university will dedicate its newest facility to him. The Shaich Family Alumni and Student Engagement Center opened in 2016.

Shaich received a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School, and an honorary doctor of humane letters from Clark. He lives in Brookline with his wife Nancy and two children.