A former leader of BP America has donated $1.5 million to a Texas-based school, which will be used to start a new bachelor's degree program in engineering leadership.

According to the El Paso Times, Bob Malone and his wife, Diane, said the curriculum will help develop a new generation of engineers. Halliburton, a worldwide energy and oil company, contributed an additional $500,000 to the program. School officials said that the institute is attempting to keep up with other schools that are already blending engineering and management in their classes, the news provider reported.

Malone is the president and CEO of The First National Bank of Sonora in Texas, following a three-year stint as the president and chairman of BP America. He retired from the oil and gas company in 2009, a year before the company's disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Patrick Shindo, a 20-year-old engineering student, told the news source that he is excited about the new degree because there is currently a lot of math and science instruction, but not a lot of lessons on how to deal with people.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that electrical engineers make a median salary of about $82,160 per year, while professionals in the oil and gas industries make about $108,000 per year.