UCSF Receives $40M Gift For Medical Center At Mission Bay

UC San Francisco has received a $40 million gift from angel investor and philanthropist Ron Conway, his wife Gayle, and sons Ronny, Topher and Danny, to help fund the outpatient medical building at the new UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay, which opens on Feb. 1 on UCSF’s world-renowned biomedical research campus. The outpatient medical building, a 207,500-square-foot facility that anchors the hospital complex, will house outpatient services for women, children and cancer patients.

In honor of the Conways’ generosity, UCSF will name the outpatient building the UCSF Ron Conway Family Gateway Medical Building.

UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay, a result of more than 10 years of planning and construction, comprises UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco, UCSF Betty Irene Moore Women’s Hospital and UCSF Bakar Cancer Hospital. The new facilities include a 289-bed hospital complex, with children’s emergency and outpatient services that will integrate research and medical advancements with patient-focused, compassionate care.​

Ron Conway is the founder of SV Angel and has worked with hundreds of startups including Google, Facebook, Zappos, Square, Airbnb, Dropbox, Pinterest  and Twitter. He also is a board member of the Salesforce.com Foundation and actively supports the tech civic organization sf.citi, College Track, Sandy Hook Promise, Americans for Responsible Solutions, Teach for America, THORN and Donors Choose.

“Ron and Gayle have been true partners with UCSF for more than a decade, and we are extremely grateful for their ongoing support. This building is significant for the connection it provides between the high-quality medical care patients will receive at our three specialty hospitals as inpatients, and the groundbreaking continuing care they will receive as outpatients,” said Sam Hawgood, MBBS, chancellor of UCSF.

Ron Conway is a member of the UCSF Medical Center Campaign Cabinet and served on the UCSF Foundation Board for several years. He has been a generous fundraiser for and philanthropist to UCSF and in particular, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco.

He also has been an active supporter of neurodegenerative disease research and treatment, through the UCSF Neuroscience Initiative, which brings together under one roof outstanding scientists and clinicians from multiple disciplines – and the core technologies that they need to be successful.

“Ron is known as an ‘angel’ investor, and that description certainly holds true for his passion to better the lives of patients at UCSF,” said Mark R. Laret, CEO of UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. “As a public medical center, we depend on the generosity of people like Ron and Gayle to continue serving the patients of San Francisco as well as Northern California and beyond. The Conways have been generous not just through financial gifts but with their time, introducing UCSF to their colleagues throughout the technology sector and Silicon Valley in order to advance our mission of care, research and education.”

The UCSF Ron Conway Family Gateway Medical Building is expected to draw more than 1,500 outpatient visits daily, as well as serve as a teaching facility for students. It includes a cancer clinic and women’s health clinic, and pediatric clinic. Some outpatient clinics will begin opening on Jan. 26.

The new medical center, strategically located on UCSF’s 60.2-acre Mission Bay research campus, will enhance UCSF’s ecosystem of innovation by putting physicians in close proximity to researchers and near biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in Mission Bay and beyond. The new cancer hospital, for example, will sit near the UCSF Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building, where every day leading scientists are seeking causes and cures for cancer.

UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay also will feature the only operating hospital helipad in San Francisco to transport critically ill babies, children and pregnant women to the medical center from outlying hospitals.

“Gayle and I are proud to partner with UCSF to improve the health of the Bay Area. We have watched UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay grow from a concept to a magnificent hospital complex, and can think of no better investment than supporting patients who are accessing needed outpatient medical services,” Ron Conway said. “We encourage others to get involved with the new medical center philanthropically, as well as other programs at this leading institution.”

The total $1.5 billion cost of the Mission Bay Hospitals Project has been funded by UCSF Medical Center financing and private philanthropy. Of the $600 million fundraising goal, UCSF has raised $550 million.

UCSF is the nation's leading university exclusively focused on health. Now celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding as a medical college, UCSF is dedicated to transforming health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with world-renowned programs in the biological sciences, a preeminent biomedical research enterprise and top-tier hospitals, UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals.