Mike Pont/Getty Images Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine donated $70 million to the University of Southern California to create an academic degree.
Dr. Dre never went to college but the music mogul has made quite a name for himself over his illustrious career.
Now he’s diving into academia with longtime business partner Jimmy Iovine, 60, to donate $70 million to the University of Southern California towards the creation of a degree that combines business, marketing, product development, design and liberal arts.
And while the charity seems generous there is a self-serving aspect to it.
Iovine and Dre created Beats, the successful private company that reportedly makes $1 billion in sales annually. But one challenge they continuously found was the lack of talent to recruit, especially software engineers and marketing experts.
The idea for the creation of an academic program that specifically targeted their needs “came out of us trying to find people to work for us,” Iovine told the New York Times.
Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre created Beats and have discovered musical talent like Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas.
It is there hope that the new program will provide them with an abundance of future Beats employees as well as a slew of talent to choose from for other ventures like Beats Music, a streaming music service debuting later this year.
If, in addition to a thriving talent pool, Dre, 48, and Iovine’s funded collegiate program creates the next Steve Jobs then all the better to the two music aficionados who were responsible for discovering Lady Gaga, 50 Cent and Black Eyed Peas, to name a few.
“If the next start-up that becomes Facebook happens to be one of our kids, that’s what we are looking for,” Iovine said.
Part of the donations will go to financially supporting disadvantaged students to “go on to do something that could potentially change the world,” Dre described.
For their first take on academia - - Iovine did not attend college either - - the men enter into it blindly as they have “no idea where this is going.”
Regardless of the outcome Dre proudly feels “like this is the biggest, most exciting and probably the most important thing that I’ve done in my career.”
Now he’s diving into academia with longtime business partner Jimmy Iovine, 60, to donate $70 million to the University of Southern California towards the creation of a degree that combines business, marketing, product development, design and liberal arts.
And while the charity seems generous there is a self-serving aspect to it.
Iovine and Dre created Beats, the successful private company that reportedly makes $1 billion in sales annually. But one challenge they continuously found was the lack of talent to recruit, especially software engineers and marketing experts.
The idea for the creation of an academic program that specifically targeted their needs “came out of us trying to find people to work for us,” Iovine told the New York Times.
Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre created Beats and have discovered musical talent like Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas.
Now the duo put up millions to create an academic degree that could possibly birth the next Steve Jobs.
If, in addition to a thriving talent pool, Dre, 48, and Iovine’s funded collegiate program creates the next Steve Jobs then all the better to the two music aficionados who were responsible for discovering Lady Gaga, 50 Cent and Black Eyed Peas, to name a few.
“If the next start-up that becomes Facebook happens to be one of our kids, that’s what we are looking for,” Iovine said.
Part of the donations will go to financially supporting disadvantaged students to “go on to do something that could potentially change the world,” Dre described.
For their first take on academia - - Iovine did not attend college either - - the men enter into it blindly as they have “no idea where this is going.”
Regardless of the outcome Dre proudly feels “like this is the biggest, most exciting and probably the most important thing that I’ve done in my career.”
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