Ranney School alumnus Marc Lore ‘89 committed to a $1 million gift to seed a new athletic fieldhouse at the school in advance of his induction into the Legendary Hall of Fame on Friday, September 27, 2024. Head of School, Dr. John Griffith announced the news following a Fireside Chat with Lore and classmate and friend Preetinder (Preet) Bharara ’86, presented to a gathering of Upper School students, family, and alumni as part of his induction.
Ranney has advanced its athletic program considerably in the days since Marc Lore and his classmates graduated. The school has made a concerted effort to invest in coaches, develop its strength and conditioning program, and improve facilities to fuel this success. Most recently, Ranney installed two state-of-the-art turf fields and replaced its track. The school has also upgraded its Olympic-sized pool and installed new locker facilities.
As a visionary entrepreneur, Lore appreciates the success Ranney has achieved, and also sees the opportunity ahead for the school as the only age 3 through grade 12 educational institution in the area. This $1 million seed gift will allow Ranney to launch the planning phase and a subsequent capital campaign for this ambitious project.
After being inducted into the Legendary Hall of Fame, Lore said, “being here brings back so many incredible memories. There’s no doubt that the experience at Ranney shaped the person I am today… It really was a special place, with a lot of special people. I’m really happy to be in a position to try and help Ranney get better in the future.”
Lore attended Ranney School from fifth grade through high school graduation. As a student, he was the founder and Captain of the Ranney Track Team, and earned the state championship title for his record time in the 55-yard dash.
Lore is the founder and CEO of Wonder Group, a company that is revolutionizing the food industry by creating a mealtime super app and operating a collection of delivery-first restaurants in collaboration with some of the world's best chefs. Lore is also an NBA owner having purchased the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx in Spring 2021 with his friend and business partner, Alex Rodriguez. In his career, Lore has started and sold four companies, most recently,
Jet.com which was acquired by Walmart in 2016 for $3.3 billion. Until 2021, Lore served as the president and CEO of Walmart U.S. eCommerce. Lore was also the co-founder and CEO of Quidsi, the parent company of e-commerce websites
Diapers.com,
Soap.com,
Wag.com, and more. The company was sold to Amazon in 2011 for $550 million.
Ranney inducted Lore as the first member of its "Legendary Hall of Fame" for his successes both at Ranney and in his impressive career beyond Hope Road. The Legendary Hall of Fame at Ranney School represents the pinnacle of recognition, reserved for those who have set extraordinary benchmarks in their professional or personal lives, and who have made transformative contributions to Ranney and the world at large.
“We are deeply grateful to Marc for helping us launch an effort to build a new state-of-the-art athletic fieldhouse at Ranney–one that will transform our school’s ability to foster students’ resilience, leadership, collaboration and discipline,” shares Dr. John Griffith, Head of School. “Although we are only in the initial stage of planning, we look forward to partnering with Marc and the Ranney community to make this vision a reality.”