Man in blue sweater with woman in blue blazer standing next to sign for amphitheater

Paul Covec ’64 and President Grace Wang

WPI Receives $3 Million from Alumnus

Gift to Beyond These Towers: The Campaign for Worcester Polytechnic Institute supports faculty and student innovations
Media Contact
December 22, 2025

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has received a $3 million gift from Paul Covec ’64 to support big ideas and bold visions from WPI faculty and students. Covec’s gift, which supports Beyond These Towers: The Campaign for Worcester Polytechnic Institute fundraising initiative, establishes the Paul A. Covec ’64 Innovation and Commercialization Fund. This fund puts Covec’s values into action, leveraging his philanthropy to have an enduring and durable impact on innovation at WPI. The amphitheatre in WPI’s Innovation Studio has been named the Paul A. Covec ’64 Amphitheatre in recognition of his philanthropy and sustaining legacy at his alma mater.

“Paul understands and appreciates the power of a WPI education and the impact of our research and innovation, creating value that truly matters to society,” says WPI President Grace Wang. “I am grateful for Paul’s generosity to support and accelerate the development of innovative ideas from faculty and students to reach the marketplace and make an impact.”

Covec’s endowed fund will stimulate growth in promising startups and serve as a catalyst for patent research, prototyping, market research, and technology licensing that will make world-changing ideas a reality.

This significant and forward-looking commitment builds on a record of success achieved by WPI’s Office of Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship. WPI faculty and students have had more than 70 patents issued since 2016 and had 62 invention disclosures between 2024 and 2025. In the last 10 years, the university’s research has resulted in 25 startups, representing 536 employees and more than $1.7 billion in capital raised. These companies are focused on such critical areas as lithium-ion battery manufacturing and recycling, carbon-negative building materials, and AI in healthcare.

“These companies and the faculty, students, and alumni behind them are addressing significant challenges facing our world,” says Bogdan Vernescu, vice president and vice provost for research and innovation at WPI. “By establishing this endowed fund, Paul Covec is providing support that will enable and sustain WPI’s commercialization pipeline long into the future. We are deeply grateful for the confidence he has shown in our faculty and students.”

Grace Wang
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I am grateful for Paul’s generosity to support and accelerate the development of innovative ideas from faculty and students to reach the marketplace and make an impact. Beginning Quote Icon of beginning quote
  • Grace Wang
  • WPI President

Covec spent years in Silicon Valley as an investor and entrepreneur. He has a deep understanding of what it takes to bring an idea to market and for a new venture to launch and endure.

“Education has the power to unlock potential and open new paths to opportunity, discovery, and innovation,” says Covec. “My WPI education shaped my future, and by establishing this fund, I hope to inspire and support students and faculty as they strive to create a brighter future for our global society.”

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Paul Covec

Paul Covec ’64

Covec founded Cypress Property Management, a private real estate company in California, over 40 years ago. The company’s portfolio includes commercial properties in the office, medical, flex, and industrial categories, as well as single- and multi-family properties in markets throughout California, Oregon, and Nevada. A full-service real estate investment and management company, its services range from investment acquisitions to strategic planning, project management, leasing, and building and maintenance services.

He retired in 2000 from Microbar in Santa Clara, Calif., as vice president of foreign and domestic marketing activities and sales expansion efforts in Asia. He joined Microbar, a manufacturer and designer of chemical management systems for semiconductor fabrication processes, in 1994 as a consultant and later became vice president of business development. For more than two decades prior, he held various senior level sales and marketing positions in test and measurement systems departments in the semiconductor industry for companies including Prometrix, Control Video, and Ward Davis Associates. He also served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1964 until 1968 before pursuing his MBA at Columbia University.

 

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By establishing this fund, I hope to inspire and support students and faculty as they strive to create a brighter future for our global society. Beginning Quote Icon of beginning quote
  • Paul Covec
  • Class of 1964

Beyond These Towers, the most ambitious fundraising campaign in WPI’s history, positions the university to continue to transform lives, to turn knowledge into action to confront global challenges, and to revolutionize STEM through its distinctive and inclusive education, projects, and research. The campaign’s theme honors the towers of WPI’s first two buildings and enduring symbols of its guiding philosophy of theory and practice. Through the campaign, alumni and friends have supported undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and world-changing research, global programs, facilities, and a thriving campus community.

To support Beyond These Towers: The Campaign for Worcester Polytechnic Institute, visit wpi.edu/+give.

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Innovation Studio