The board evaluated options, and decided to pursue an idea that Olin had suggested in the 1940s: starting a new college. In 1997, they chartered the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering and made an initial gift of $200 million. Milas was president initially, but he soon hired Richard Miller as the college's president and first full-time employee. In 2005, after the college had been up and running for several years, the foundation dissolved itself and transferred the balance of its endowment, about $250 million, to the college.