Page 44 - Mansfield 2019/20

The impact of your support Bancroft Fellows: Mansfield’s
greatest honour for philanthropy
Mansfield’s Principal and Governing Body were delighted to admit five new Bancroft Fellows to the Fellowship in Michaelmas term 2020, and we want to take this opportunity to celebrate all of our Bancroft Fellows, both new and long-standing.
The Bancroft Fellowship is named after the late Lord Bancroft, who was Chairman of Trustees of Mansfield before we were awarded our Royal Charter as a full College of the University of Oxford. It is the highest philanthropic honour the College can bestow. We would like to express our deep and sincere gratitude to all of our Bancroft Fellows for their exceptional support.
Mr Antonio Bonchristiano
(PPE, 1984)
Antonio Bonchristiano is CEO and Managing Director of GP Investments, a private equity firm based in São Paulo. He joined GP Investments in 1993 and has been a
Managing Director since 1995. Antonio gave generous support
to Mansfield’s Love Lane campaign, enabling the creation of new student accommodation. He has also made gifts to encourage increased student performance in, and engagement with,
sport at our College. A donor to the Weston Library within the University of Oxford, Antonio has funded the Patricia and Antonio Bonchristiano Room and supported other projects for the Bodleian Library. He sits on both Mansfield College’s and the Bodleian Library’s Development Boards, and is a member of the University’s Vice Chancellor’s Circle.
Reverend Charles Brock
Charles Brock is an Emeritus Fellow and former Chaplain (1965-98) and Director of Ministerial Education at Mansfield, having taught at our College for 35 years. His
late wife Carolyn was Director of Music
at Mansfield, served as our organist for many years, and also conducted other Oxford choirs, especially the City of Oxford Choir. Charles is currently the Director of the Institute on the American Dream at Penn State Behrend in Pennsylvania, where he teaches for the Politics and Religion departments. He is acting minister of The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Girard, PA and a Founding Member of the Jefferson Educational Society of Erie (JES), a non-profit think tank. He also serves as the Director of the Brock Institute for Mega Issues Education at the JES. Charles’ exceptional philanthropic support to Mansfield has endowed the John Milton Fellow in Politics, held by Professor David Leopold; contributed
to the Love Lane campaign to establish the Hands Building and Bonavero Institute of Human Rights; and helped with the upkeep of the Chapel and the restoration of the organ at Mansfield, as well as other College projects and initiatives.
‘Charles Brock [was] a colourful and liberal Chaplain [at Mansfield] who epitomised the atmosphere of change in his spiritual generosity and mischievous sense of humour. The ease of passage of the College into a new relationship with its religious origins was due in no small part to his vision.’ Professor Michael Freeden, in Mansfield: Portrait of an Oxford College.
Mr Jan Fischer (PPE, 1989)
Jan Fischer is Managing Director of Fischer Beteiligungsconsult, a venture capital firm in Munich. The firm typically invests in companies in the digital media, mobility and transport, and renewable-energy sectors
and is a third-generation family business. Jan has given generous and flexible support to Mansfield through a multi-year gift that has enabled varied projects which champion and celebrate our academic community and benefit our students. He has also supported the new Kofi Annan Scholarships over five years, our new Refugee Scholarship, and the Adam von Trott Scholarships. Jan’s philanthropy is wide-ranging. He has established a new
art foundation in Berlin, Light Art Space, which brings cutting- edge light-based art to Germany, and he also set up the Stiftung Grundeinkommen gGmbH (Basic Income Foundation) in Munich. He is on the Board of the Kuratorium Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; the Advisory Board of the art funding institution
Outset Deutschland / Schweiz gGmbH in Berlin; and the Board
of Directors of ZADA eV the Center against Anti-Semitism, Discrimination and Exclusion in Hamburg. Jan is a member of the University’s Vice Chancellor’s Circle in recognition of his support of Mansfield College. He is based in Munich and has three daughters.
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