Robert Schad, the founder of plastic manufacturer Husky, has donated $12 million to the Royal Ontario Museum's new Rennaissance ROM project.

Schad's funds will go to support expansion and renovation of a new gallery devoted to biodiversity scheduled to open in early 2009, the ROM announced on Tuesday.

"We’re thrilled to receive this transformative gift from Robert Schad and his family to expand our natural history research, galleries and programs," said William Thorsell, ROM director and CEO.

Schad, 79, stepped down as CEO of the Bolton, Ont.-based Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. a year ago, but continues to work on projects through his Earth Rangers organization, a partnership-driven environmental charity started in 1999.

The proposed 10,000-square-foot Schad Family Gallery of Life in Crisis at the ROM will focus on the diversity of life on Earth and the challenges to its conservation. It will be developed in conjunction with a new exhibit at the Earth Rangers Centre in Vaughan, Ont., the ROM said.

"By establishing this new gallery and its programs at the ROM, I hope that we can reach out to millions of children and adults and touch their lives with a powerful, simple and ultimately hopeful message on the importance of biodiversity, how threatened it is currently, and what they can do today and tomorrow to preserve it," said Schad.

The donation will also be used to create a fund gallery development, public programs and research.

Ontario's Minister of Culture Caroline Di Cocco called Schad "an outstanding philanthropist" and praised the private sector for "coming to the plate to ensure that our cultural future remains bright."

The $12 million is the third-largest private donation the museum has received as part of its Rennaissance ROM funding drive, which has raised $238 million in total and $213 million of the total $250-million capital construction costs, plus $25 million for related program and endowment priorities.