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SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 31, 2026—The Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (JST-SCU) has received a generous $1 million gift from Mili Delbecq in honor of her late husband, the former business-school dean and expert in spirituality and business leadership, André L. Delbecq. The gift will establish an endowment for the André L. Delbecq Global Program for Adult Formation. 

The program will build on Delbecq’s innovative legacy in the field of spirituality and business leadership, and will be guided by his assertion that “Love provokes the leader to exercise his/her own gifts in spheres of proper responsibility and grants the same freedom to others.” He goes on to write that “It is the role of the spiritual person to stand shoulder to shoulder with all individuals of goodwill in defense of a more human way of doing things.”

This program will provide formation and leadership development for cohorts of lay and Jesuit faculty at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University and the member schools of the Collaborative Theology Initiative (CTI). The CTI is a network of Jesuit schools of theology, including JST-SCU, around the globe that work together to reimagine new ways of theological education and ministerial formation through collaboration, partnership, and sharing of resources. Its current membership includes eight English-speaking Jesuit theology centers spread across the globe from Africa and Madagascar, Asia Pacific, North America, and South Asia. Over time, this is expected to grow to include Spanish- and French-speaking Jesuit theology schools.

JST-SCU Dean Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, S.J., is the inaugural chair of the CTI. He shared, “Mili’s exceedingly generous gift in honor of André will advance the global reach of JST-SCU and support the mission of Collaborative Theology Initiative by forming faculty and staff who imbibe Jesuit Ignatian values and in turn educate women and men of compassion, competence, and conscience to serve in the church and the world.” 

Inspired by Delbecq’s work in spirituality and business leadership, which he pioneered at Santa Clara, cohorts will receive the spiritual formation to nurture, enhance, and deepen their leadership capacity and inform decision-making, spiritual practice, and ethical living. They will be equipped to foster the spiritual growth and formation of the next generation of synodal leaders. 

"I’m thrilled that I am able to support a program that continues and expands the work that André found so exciting and important,” said Mili Delbecq. “He firmly believed that leaders in business and the university needed to have an opportunity to learn and experience a life grounded in spirituality and discernment so that they could share it with their employees and students, enabling everyone to make better decisions, not only for themselves, but for the common good.” 

About the Delbecqs 

Both André and Mili have strong ties to Santa Clara University. Mili Delbecq earned her MBA from Santa Clara’s Leavy School of business in 1978, where she has also served on the Graduate Business Alumni Council. André Delbecq held multiple roles during a nearly four-decade career at Santa Clara University. He served as the dean of the Leavey School of Business from 1979 to 1989. His other roles included director of the Institute for Spirituality of Organization Leadership, the Thomas J. and Kathleen L. McCarthy University Professor, and senior fellow of the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education. He also served as faculty senate president.

André Delbecq is best known as a pioneer in the area of spirituality and business leadership. After multiple requests from business leaders to develop classes that would connect business leadership with ethics and spirituality, he developed and taught the course Spirituality and Organizational Leadership to MBA students beginning in 1998. He would later establish the Ignatian Faculty Forum in 2002, and the Senior Leadership Forum in 2013. He was a Senior Fellow at the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education until his passing in 2016. He is credited as the founder of the Management, Spirituality and Religion academic domain. In 2020, a special issue of the Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion was dedicated to celebrating the life and scholarly impact of André. 

About the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University

The Jesuit School of Theology is a global ministry of the Society of Jesus and a graduate school of Santa Clara University. It is an international center for innovative theological education and formation rooted in the lived realities of diverse communities of faith. Embracing synodality, it empowers women and men to serve and lead in the global Catholic church. For information, visit: https://www.scu.edu/jst/ 

About Santa Clara University

Founded in 1851, Santa Clara University sits in the heart of Silicon Valley—the world’s most innovative and entrepreneurial region. The University’s stunningly landscaped 106-acre campus is home to the historic Mission Santa Clara de Asís. Ranked among the top 15 percent of national universities by U.S. News & World Report, SCU has among the best four-year graduation rates in the nation and is rated by PayScale in the top 1 percent of universities with the highest-paid graduates. SCU has produced elite levels of Fulbright Scholars as well as four Rhodes Scholars. With undergraduate programs in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, and graduate programs in six disciplines, the curriculum blends high-tech innovation with social consciousness grounded in the tradition of Jesuit, Catholic education. For more information, see www.scu.edu.

Media Contact
Ginger Monroe | JST-SCU Marketing and Communications | vmonroe@scu.edu | 510-549-5032