Columbia University has benefited from US$29 million in bequests from the estate of a Hong Kong banker and his sister. The bequests from Robert Tam Yik-fong and Tam Wun-tsun will be used primarily to support professorships, provide seed money for a university committee studying globalisation issues, and further programmes in its East Asian library. Tam, an alumnus of the New York university's business school, was an executive of Dah Chong Trading Corp in New York and an investment banker in Hang Seng Bank; his sister was an educator who had taught in both elementary and high schools. Both died in 2004. Their donations will help in the university's drive to raise US$4 billion.