A software industry executive who is an alumnus of UC Santa Barbara has pledged $50 million to the school for energy efficiency research and engineering programs. The gift is the largest in the history of the campus, officials said Friday.

The donation is from Jeffrey Henley, who is chairman of the board of Oracle and graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 1966, and his wife, Judy.

Of their total pledge, $30 million will help finance a new building, which will be named Henley Hall and be the home of the Institute for Energy Efficiency. The other $20 million will be paid from their estate at a later date to support the College of Engineering.

Researchers at the Institute for Energy Efficiency are working on such projects as high-efficiency fuel cells and technologies that will allow communications devices to run faster and with less heat generated.

“We hope to create new opportunities for research and discovery and to support UC Santa Barbara’s already strong commitment to preparing the next generation of scientists and engineers,” said Jeffrey Henley, who has been Oracle’s chairman since 2004 and was its chief financial officer before that, in a statement.

With the Henley gift, UC Santa Barbara has pledges and donations totaling $718 million toward a $1 billion fundraising goal, according to campus spokesman George Foulsham.

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-- Larry Gordon

Photo: Jeffrey Henley. Credit: Oracle