Shirley and Walter Wang – the chief executive and president of Westchester-based plastic pipe maker JM Eagle Inc. – have agreed to give $25 million to UCLA Health to create the UCLA Walter and Shirley Wang Center for Integrative Digestive Health.

The center will offer help to those living with gastrointestinal disorders. The center takes a holistic approach, looking at disorders in a variety of ways.

For the Wangs, the decision to donate to UCLA was personal.

“My son was quite sick with stomach issues and almost couldn’t graduate,” Shirley Wang recalled.

Enter Eric Esrailian, chief of the UCLA Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases and director of the Melvin and Bren Simon Digestive Diseases Center. He encouraged the Wangs to bring their son to UCLA for treatment.

Shirley said she appreciated the center’s holistic approach and how it “looks at things as a whole.”

“It really helped my son,” she said.

While in the waiting room, Shirley Wang said she heard the receptionist tell someone they would have to wait a year for the center’s next appointment.

“That’s why Walter and I decided to donate to this so more and more people could access this treatment and be looked at holistically,” she said, adding that her son was now doing well.

“Thanks to their visionary and transformational gift, the UCLA Walter and Shirley Wang Center for Integrative Digestive Health will be the undisputed global leader in this field,” Esrailian said in a statement about the donation. “Our clinicians and researchers have taught the world about digestive health and wellness for decades. The formalization of this endowed center is unprecedented.”

What the funds will be used for

Walter Wang, who said he also dealt with stomach issues when younger, said stomach issues “really handicap your life” and saw the need for this type of center.

Shirley Wang, a UCLA alum and former chair of The UCLA Foundation board, said UCLA’s method of treating gastrointestinal issues was unique in that it “treats the person holistically” instead of being hyper focused on certain areas.

“There’s a lot of people in desperate need for this kind of medical service,” she said.

Walter Wang said the donation will allow the center’s waiting time to decrease to under two weeks and allow more doctors, psychologists and dieticians  to be hired.

Shirley Wang added that the center would be able to have offices around Los Angeles, not just in Westwood. She added that the center’s holistic approach could be applied to other areas of medicine as well.

The center will have gastrointestinal psychologists, dieticians and more and teach patients about mindfulness-based interventions, breathing and more to address disorders.

“I am grateful to Shirley and Walter Wang for their profound generosity and vision,” Johnese Spisso, president of UCLA Health and chief executive of the UCLA Hospital System, said in a statement. “This gift has the potential to revolutionize the way UCLA Health cares for GI diseases and transform the patient experience. The Wangs’ investment will have a profound benefit to generations of patients with digestive conditions.”

Other philanthropic ventures

Walter Wang runs JM Eagle, one of the world’s largest plastic pipes manufacturers. His father was the chair of Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics. Wang’s success has propelled him to billionaire status, with an estimated net worth of $3.6 billion, according to Forbes. All of his company’s manufacturing is done in the U.S.

He and his wife have donated millions to a variety of causes over the years, including to wildfire relief. They donated $1.5 million already and are committed to donating $6.5 million in total. The initial donation was used to buy a bulldozer to clear debris and to help rebuild fire burn zones.

“We feel like we’re part of the community and we want to be there for what’s needed,” Shirley Wang said.

The Wangs are also the title sponsor for Ladies Professional Golf Association’s Los Angeles stop. Walter Wang called it “very unfair” how much less female golfers are paid compared to men, so he worked to up the prize purse, aid in travel and more.

The Wangs have made other donations to UCLA over the years to a number of programs including the Depression Grand Challenge; scholarships for physical sciences, computer science; study abroad; the Walter and Shirley Wang Endowed Chair in Medicinal Drug Discovery; and the Walter and Shirley Wang Chair in U.S./China Relations and Communications.