**William Polk Carey** (May 11, 1930 – January 2, 2012) was an American businessman. He was the first person to apply leaseback financing to things other than automobiles. Carey started W. P. Carey & Co. LLC. It is a corporate real estate financing company. The headquarters of the company are in New York City in 1973. The company is the largest publicly traded limited liability company in the world. As of March 2022[update], the company owns more than 1,300 properties in 24 countries. It owns more than 90,000,000 feet (27,000,000 m) of space.

Early life, career, and family
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Carey was born May 11, 1930 in Baltimore, Maryland. He is a direct descendant of the 11th US President, James K. Polk. Carey's family has long ties in Baltimore. His great-great-great-grandfather James Carey was an 18th- and 19th-century Baltimore shipper, the chairman of the Bank of Maryland, a member of Baltimore's first City council, and a relative of Johns Hopkins. His grandmother, Anne Galbraith Carey, started the Gilman School for boys in the Baltimore suburb of Roland Park in 1897. As a young man, Carey left the Gilman School to go to the Pomfret School in Connecticut,. After this, he studied at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania. He served in the Air Force for two years. He then worked at his stepfather's car dealership to repay his college expenses. He learned about leaseback financing while he worked there. He then moved to New York City. Carey lived in New York City and Rensselaerville, New York. In 1988, Carey started the W.P. Carey Foundation. In 1999, he served as the Executive in Residence at the Harvard Business School.

Arizona State University W. P. Carey School of Business
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Carey was a benefactor to the Arizona State University College of Business. In 2002, Carey gave US$50million to the College of Business. Because of this, the University renamed its business school the W. P. Carey School of Business.

The Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School
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Carey talks with Johns Hopkins University about a proposal to start a business school in the 1950s. John Hopkins was not interested. In December 2006, it was announced that Carey gave $50 million to Johns Hopkins University. He was a trustee emeritus at the school and donated the money through his W.P. Carey Foundation. It was the largest gift given to Hopkins in support of business education. John Hopkins school of business is now called the Carey Business School. The Hopkins business school was renamed after William Carey's great-great-great-grandfather, James Carey. The school offers a Master of Science in Real Estate program. It is one of the first in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area.

University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
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On April 25, 2011, Carey gave $30 million to the University of Maryland School of Law. The gift was given to increase the school's endowment. The school was renamed after Carey's grandfather, Francis King Carey, He was a graduate of the Law School in 1880.

Contribution to The Gilman School
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In the mid-1990s, the Gilman School started discussing the renovations of Carey Hall. It was the school's main building and housed the Upper School students. Carey Hall was named after Carey's grandmother. It was built in 1910. The building had remained the same until late 2006. Carey gave $10million to the school's capital campaign fund. This amount was twenty percent of the total amount of money raised for the renovation of Carey Hall. On December 10, 2007, Carey Hall was re-opened.

Sewanee
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Carey is a direct descendent of Bishop Leonidas Polk, the founder of Sewanee, the "University of the South." Sewanee named an undergraduate business program in Carey's honor. Carey also funded the Carey Fellowships for honor business students. In 2006, Carey received an honorary degree from Sewanee.

Other websites
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* W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University
* The Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business Archived January 11, 2007, at the Library of Congress Web Archives
* Sewanee undergraduate business program Archived January 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine