Updated: December 20, 4:19 p.m. The Yale School of Management has received a pledged $50 million gift from Ned Evans ’64 to support the construction of its new campus, the Yale Office of Public Affairs and Communications announced Monday morning.

In honor of the gift — the largest in SOM’s history — the new SOM building will be named Edward P. Evans Hall, after Evans, a private investor and former CEO of the publishing house Macmillan. Yale has been seeking a donor to name the building since at least September, when SOM Dean Sharon Oster said Yale was asking for around $100 million for the naming rights.

In an e-mail to the News today, Oster said that along with other donations the school has received, the Evans gift will allow SOM to build its new campus “without financial strain.”

“It has all along been our hope to secure a major gift to name the campus, without exactly knowing what the right number was or how much we would be able to raise from other sources,” she said.

Oster said in a press release that the gift will help SOM expand its influence in scholarship and practice and further its involvement in the Yale community.

“I am very excited that we have seen this level of generosity and commitment from a Yale College alumnus and take it as an indication of the value that many Yale College graduates place on its young management school,” she added in an e-mail.

The announcement of Evans’ gift follows a $10 million gift from Wilbur L. Ross ’59 in early November. In an interview with the News in September, Oster said the school had raised $90 million toward the $189 million project and was considering borrowing up to an additional $65 million to finance the remainder.

The 4.25 acre campus, which was designed by the architectural firm Foster + Partners, is currently under construction on Whitney Avenue. It is planned to open in the fall of 2013.