Wicklow Foundation Gives $2 Million to Establish Margaret Faye Wilson Endowment at Salk Institute

The Wicklow Foundation has donated $2 million to the Salk Institute to establish the Margaret Faye Wilson Endowment in honor of the banking and retail leader and former Salk Trustee.

Wilson served on the Salk Board from 2010 to 2019 and supported the Institute’s research over the years, Wilson died in July 2023.

The new endowment will support Salk’s Chief Information Officer and the Institute’s biocomputation strategy. With new investments in biocomputation — advanced capabilities in computing, data storage, machine learning, and artificial intelligence — the Institute is working to position better Salk researchers to acquire high-throughput data and harness varied datasets.

The Wicklow Foundation’s investment will empower researchers to tackle currently unaddressed scientific questions and open fundamentally new areas of inquiry across fields ranging from cancer to climate change.

Before she served as a Salk Trustee, Wilson co-founded Wilson Boyles & Co., a business management and strategic planning consulting firm with offices in San Diego and Chicago. She previously held the position of senior vice president of the Risk Management Group for The Home Depot, also serving on that board of directors, and spent 21 years at Bank of America as a top-level executive.

Wilson served on multiple corporate boards, including Biocept, Inc. She also held positions on numerous civic boards in San Diego, including the San Diego Opera, the Civic Theatre, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and the San Diego Humane Society.

To contribute to the Margaret Faye Wilson Endowment, please contact Dacia Samilo at dsamilo@salk.edu or (858) 453-4100 x2068.