Honoring His Roots

$10 Million Gift to Launch HSLopez School of Business Analytics

By Christy Krueger

After spending a lifetime working hard and smart, Humberto S. Lopez calls it a “responsibility” to pay back his gratitude to those who helped him along the way.

One of the many longtime beneficiaries has been the University of Arizona, Lopez’s alma mater, where he just added $10 million to his impressive list of donations to help create the new HSLopez School of Business Analytics at the Eller College of Management.

Lopez and his wife, Czarina, have a long history of philanthropy in the community. Humberto says he’s had many to thank along the way.

At the age of 12, he began supporting his family after his father passed away, and thanks to his perseverance, he was able to attend Cochise College then UArizona. There, he received an accounting degree from the School of Business and Public Administration, now known as the Eller College of Management. 

“The School of Accounting was very well known, and I got job offers from all the companies I talked to,” Lopez stated. “I elected to go with Deloitte and I became a real estate expert.”

In the 1970s, he established HSL Properties, which has since acquired, owned, operated and developed properties in multiple states and formed more than 100 limited partnerships and limited liability companies. Shortly after, he and Czarina began their long history of gifting UArizona.

“We at Eller and the entire University of Arizona Wildcat family are indebted to Bert and Czarina,” said Karthik Kannan, dean and Halle Chair in Leadership at Eller. “We are grateful for their generous donations of both time and money that allow us to further develop tools and resources for our Eller students.”

Lopez said he feels strongly about the importance of analytics in the business world. “For example,” he said, “when we build apartments, we look at what areas we’re covering, vacancies, crime reports, demographics. In the computer age, we can gather lots of information. A graduate with a degree in analytics is in high demand. Students with a major or minor at Eller will be able to get high-paying jobs.”

Through the years, Lopez has supported a variety of on-campus endeavors. “I’ve been involved with the university since I graduated. I was chairman of the (Sarver) Heart Center for 10 years, I did fundraising for the athletic department, I was on the board of advisors for the accounting department at Eller.”

The UArizona Alumni Association honored him with the 2020-2021 Alumnus of the Year award for the Eller College of Management. He also created the Endowed Chair for Excellence in Cardiovascular Research at the Sarver Center in the College of Medicine. Its first recipient was Carol Gregorio, who is co-director of Sarver Heart Center and chair of the Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine.

“The Lopezes just really want to make a difference and I’m not going to disappoint them. It’s such an honor,” Gregorio said upon receiving the news of her selection in 2021.

Humberto and Czarina have a close connection to Sarver Heart Center as Czarina has been a patient there since receiving a kidney and heart transplant at another medical center.

The couple’s philanthropic interests extend beyond UArizona. Close to their hearts is the Center of Opportunity, which they created in 2018 after purchasing a Tucson hotel and converting it into a homeless shelter.

“I consider this my baby,” Lopez said. “We’re transforming homelessness and addiction. We teach them to interview, and Pima Community College is training them for vocations. My goal is to take the concept throughout the country, into other cities and states, and to get other philanthropists involved.”

Lopez said he never forgets his beginnings and the support he’s had since early on. He says he will spend his remaining days giving back to the community.

“I’m giving everything away that my wife and I have,” he said. “We have had a very good life, and we have excess. We have the responsibility to give back. We can’t take it with us, and the money will do great things.”

Pictured above – Czarina  & Humberto Lopez. Photo Courtesy School of Business Analytics at the Eller College of Management