A Seattle-area foundation has given $36.5 million to the University of Washington Business School, which plans to change the school's name to honor one of the foundation's founders.

The UW board of regents was expected to approve changing the name to the Michael G. Foster School of Business, in honor of a one-time UW student who grew his father's municipal bond-selling business, Foster & Marshall, into the Northwest's largest financial services firm during the 1970s.

Foster sold the firm in 1982 to Shearson/American Express, and in 1984 formed the Foster Foundation with his parents, Albert and Evelyn Foster, who were UW alums.

Michael Foster died in 2003.

Foster School dean James Jiambalvo called the donation "a transformational gift. It's going to provide the resources we need to hire and retain top scholars and teachers, launch new programs and provide scholarships.

"We are now much closer to becoming one of the premier programs in the country, thanks to this exceptionally generous gift," he said.

The Foster Foundation has given a total of $50 million to the business school over the past two decades. In 1990, it gave $3 million to help build a new business school library, called the Foster Library in honor of Albert and Evelyn Foster.

The foundation also has given $10 million toward the construction of a new building for the business school, and in 1984 established both an endowed chair and an endowed fellowship fund.