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Job Description

Columbia University
Vice President for Alumni Relations and President, Columbia Alumni Association
New York, NY

Columbia University is one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher learning. Founded more than 250 years ago, Columbia boasts a distinguished history of scholarly inquiry, outstanding teaching, and singular contributions to humankind. This legacy is thriving today under the leadership of President Lee C. Bollinger, as the university pursues a position of even greater leadership worldwide.

Among President Bollinger's highest priorities is the strengthening of ties between the university and its constituents, most especially its alumni. In 2003 this commitment took form with the appointment of the first vice president for alumni relations, and again in October 2005 as the university and a group of trustees and alumni volunteer leaders launched the Columbia Alumni Association. The CAA is intended to strengthen the bonds between Columbians of all university schools, worldwide, through events, programs, communications, and online resources. Today the CAA connects a global alumni network of over 265,000 alumni while complementing the well-established alumni relations efforts of Columbia's 16 schools.

Columbia now seeks a vice president for alumni relations to lead this effort into its next phase. Serving concurrently as president of the CAA, this senior professional will work with alumni to create and execute a strategic plan for the association while working in close concert with leadership across the university to ensure a coherent and coordinated approach to alumni engagement. Reporting to Executive Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Susan Feagin and working with the officers and board of the Columbia Alumni Association, the vice president will serve as the senior alumni relations officer of Columbia University and as one of its principal representatives to alumni around the world.

The vice president for alumni relations will be a leader of people and programs with exceptional interpersonal and communications skills. He or she will possess the ability to accomplish great things in an environment of shared authority and responsibility combined with the ability to motivate both colleagues and volunteers to work together in the pursuit of common goals. A person of energy and experience is required, one who is at once comfortable building and managing staff, budgets, and programs and traveling the globe representing Columbia to its many diverse alumni constituencies.

The vice president will be joining Columbia at a propitious moment. Work is well under way on the university's first alumni center, which will welcome visiting alumni while providing an office and meeting facility where Columbia's highly integrated alumni relations and development programs can gather both formally and informally. On another front, with exemplary leadership from alumni volunteers, the university's $4 billion campaign continues to make great progress toward its scheduled conclusion in 2011. Finally, perhaps most important, the university's trustees have lent their considerable energies and imprimatur to the development of the CAA. The CAA has developed early momentum, attracting committed volunteers, establishing new models for collaboration with school-based efforts, new forms of alumni leadership, and new modes of alumni connection. The vice president for alumni relations at Columbia will leverage all these assets and more to create a program commensurate with the stature of Columbia University.

Recruitment will continue until the position is filled. Nominations, expressions of interest, and applications (including a cover letter and resume) should be submitted via email to ColumbiaVPAR@wittkieffer.com.

Material that cannot be sent electronically may be mailed to:

Confidential inquiries and questions concerning this search may be directed to Dennis M. Barden at (630) 575-6167 or Mercedes C. Vance at (207) 775-0913.

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