Shaun McConnon donates $15M to Roanoke College

Roanoke College has received a $15 million donation, the single largest cash gift in the school’s 179-year history, college president Michael Maxey announced Thursday to the board of trustees.

College alumnus Shaun McConnon, former CEO of Massachusetts-based cybersecurity company BitSight Technologies, donated the money for the new science center. The center will house the psychology, biology and environmental studies majors, and one-third of all courses taught on campus will be taught in the center. Most student research will be conducted in the center.

“Shaun McConnon’s extraordinary gift represents a new chapter for Roanoke College, and we are grateful,” Maxey said in a statement. “Shaun’s 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 the 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,” McConnon said in a statement. “I felt that at this point in my life, after a rewarding career, I would give back to Roanoke College.”

McConnon graduated from Roanoke College with a major in biology and a minor in chemistry in 1966. He has guided several tech companies through acquisitions, like Q1 Labs, which IBM acquired for $600 million in 2011; Raptor Systems Inc., which Axent Technologies Inc., now part of NortonLifeLock Inc., acquired for $250 million in 1997; and Okena, which Cisco Systems Inc. bought for $154 million in 2003.