Philanthropists Gilchrist and Amy Berg have donated $50 million to Mayo Clinic to accelerate global health care innovation.
The Mayo Clinic Innovation Exchange will be renamed Mayo Clinic Berg Innovation Exchange in their honor, Mayo said June 30 in announcing the gift.
Gilchrist Berg is the founder of Jacksonville-based Water Street Capital private investment management firm. Amy Berg is chair of the World Affairs Council of Jacksonville and president of the Berg Family Foundation.
“The Bergs have been champions of Mayo Clinic’s Innovation Exchange since its earliest days through their gifts of time, thought leadership and financial support,” Gianrico Farrugia, president and CEO of Mayo Clinic, said in the release.
“We at Mayo Clinic are truly grateful for their remarkable generosity and commitment to bringing more innovations to patients.”
“To us, this is about more than financial support — it’s about helping shape the future of healthcare innovation with an organization whose culture values excellence, compassion and discovery,” Gilchrist Berg said in the release.
“When you work alongside Mayo Clinic’s visionary leaders, you cannot help but feel energized about Mayo’s abilities to lead on a global stage.”
Amy Berg said she and her husband like to get involved with people who have the right values and character.
“With Mayo Clinic, we know we’re supporting an organization that places the patient at the heart of what it does,” she said.
Mayo said the gift will advance research leveraging emerging technologies to address critical patient needs; provide mentorship, peer networking and educational opportunities; and enhance collaboration, identify synergies and expedite the development of innovative solutions.
“The Mayo Clinic Berg Innovation Exchange advances science by facilitating and enabling connections that otherwise would not be possible, a key component of Mayo Clinic’s bold vision to transform healthcare,” Kent Thielen, CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida and vice president of Mayo Clinic, said in the release.
“Amy and Gilchrist Berg are strengthening the program’s capacity to form partnerships that deliver faster, stronger solutions to complex medical challenges. We are incredibly grateful for the active partnership and support provided by the Bergs and excited about the impact the Mayo Clinic Berg Innovation Exchange will have on the future of healthcare.”
The Bergs have a history of philanthropy.
Gilchrist Berg funded the Jacksonville University Randall C. Berg Jr. College of Law Dean in June 2023.
The multimillion-dollar position is endowed through a gift of an undisclosed amount. It honors Berg’s late brother Randall C. Berg Jr., founding executive director of the Florida Justice Institute, a public interest law firm in Miami.
In October 2023, Gilchrist Berg donated $1.3 million to the University of North Florida College of Education and Human Services to fund 20 scholarships annually for two years to help launch the Osprey Teacher Residency and Accelerated Program for aspiring educators attending UNF.