The Board of Trustees at Roanoke College will receive a $15 million donation from Shaun McCannon, a 1966 graduate and a cybersecurity expert who has founded several technology-based security companies.
It looks like a going away present from retiring President Michael Maxey, but it is actually a whopper of a donation to Roanoke College—the biggest in its history—from a graduate.
Maxey announced Thursday that the Board of Trustees at the Salem college will receive a $15 million donation from Shaun McCannon, a 1966 graduate and a cybersecurity expert who has founded several technology-based security companies.
Says Maxey, “Shaun McConnon’s extraordinary gift represents a new chapter for Roanoke College, and we are grateful. [The gift] will help us realize our goals for the new Science Center, a space that will benefit many generations and our surrounding community. When complete, the Science Center will foster the types of meaningful academic and personal, purposeful connections Roanoke College is known for. This is an exciting time in our College history.”
McConnon challenged Roanoke College to match the donation by the time Maxey retires in August 2022. “I’m hoping that my donation and my story will help other alumni think about how Roanoke College may have helped and inspired their lives and careers,” says McConnon. “I felt that at this point in my life, after a rewarding career, I would give back to Roanoke College. I am asking all alumni to consider donating to the future of the College, and the new Science Center. It will be rewarding for them, the College and future students who aspire to greater things.”
McConnon majored in biology at Roanoke College, with a minor in chemistry. He began his technology career with Honeywell and went on to Data General and Sun Microsystems. McConnon’s next career phase involved creating, building and then selling high- tech security companies that detect abnormal, suspicious or intrusive activity. He founded four companies: Raptor Systems, Okena, Q1 Labs (acquired by IBM to form security division) and BitSight Technologies.
The new Science Center will impact every student at Roanoke College — those majoring in the sciences and those majoring in other academic fields. Every student at Roanoke takes at least three courses from the programs that will be housed in the Science Center. One-third of all courses on campus will be taught in the Science Center. Most of the student research will take place there, and it will house three of Roanoke’s 10 most popular majors: psychology, biology and environmental studies.
About the Writer:
Dan Smith is an award-winning Roanoke-based writer/author/photographer and a member of the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame (Class of 2010). He has authored eight books, including the upcoming novel out in Summer 2022, NEWS! He is founding editor of a Roanoke-based business magazine and a former Virginia Small Business Journalist of the Year (2005).
