University Advancement Leadership Transition

To the Anteater community:

Yesterday Vice Chancellor for University Advancement Gregory Leet informed me of his intention to leave his current position. Having overseen the just-completed and historic Shaping the Future campaign – making us the youngest university in the country ever to complete a $1 billion fundraising campaign – he concluded that the timing was right to explore new opportunities. Associate Vice Chancellor Brian Hervey will act as interim vice chancellor while we prepare to search for Gregory's successor.

Gregory joined UCI in September 2011, bringing with him two decades of exceptional fundraising and management experience in higher education. The Shaping the Future campaign was the first comprehensive fundraising campaign ever at UCI and the first campaign in the Orange County area ever to attempt, much less reach, a $1 billion goal. The campaign's 113,071 donors funded more than 500 scholarships and graduate fellowships, endowed more than 50 academic chairs, and tripled UCI's endowment. It was truly an outstanding achievement – one that would not have happened without Gregory's tireless contributions to its success.

During his tenure, Gregory also implemented new processes for finding and tracking donors; upgraded old and outdated technology to enhance data-driven decision-making; increased the size of the advancement staff to enable more field visits; reinvigorated the advancement efforts in the schools and units; developed a special website to assist faculty in their grant-writing activity; increased our community engagement efforts to establish more robust connections with existing and potential stakeholders; revamped advancement operations to create a more cohesive team, enhance internal reporting and improve data quality; and instituted new communications to deepen the donor-UCI connection.

In all, because of Gregory's leadership, UCI now has an advancement structure and culture that will propel us toward our more brilliant future.

Gregory has played an integral role in advancing UCI on the national and international stages, and he leaves us well-positioned for continued success. We all owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude. I know I speak for the entire Anteater community in wishing him great success in his next endeavor.

Chancellor Howard Gillman