USM Vice Chancellor for Advancement
To Take UConn. Job

April 10, 2003

John K. Martin, University System of Maryland (USM) vice chancellor for advancement and president of the independent University of Maryland Foundation (UMF), announced today that he will resign this summer to become president of the University of Connecticut Foundation.

Martin, a 17-year veteran of the USM, said he is looking forward to returning to raising funds for a campus, interacting with potential donors and measuring a gift's impact almost from the day it is made.

"My tenure at the System has been professionally and personally rewarding and it is hard to leave so many good friends and colleagues," Martin said. "However, the opportunity to return to a campus setting and be on the front lines of a fundraising program is very exciting. The process of securing a gift that you know will help out a student, a professor, or an entire academic program is tremendously gratifying to me, and at Connecticut I will have the chance to do it every day."

USM Chancellor William E. Kirwan, who has known Martin since the former served as president of the University of Maryland, College Park, said the System has depended on Martin's leadership through heady financial times as well as down markets, and every USM institution has benefited from his steady hand.

"Today, institutions of higher education must have expert guidance in fundraising strategies, donor development, corporate and foundation relations, and the management of endowments," Kirwan said. "John is among the handful of advancement officers nationwide who has an in-depth understanding of all of these areas. He will be greatly missed."

Roger R. Blunt, Sr., chairman of the UMF board of directors and president and chief executive officer of Blunt Enterprises, LLC, said Martin represents a style of "friend raising" that is not always apparent in this fast-paced, bottom line-driven profession.

"John has always known that when you are soliciting a donation, whether it's for $100 or a million dollars, you have to show the value of the act," Blunt said. "He makes it clear that a particular gift is going to help an institution grow in a very specific way, and that's the important thing. You may be interested in funding a scholarship or a new building, it doesn't matter -- John is aware that you are taking a personal interest in it. He makes friends for the USM campuses, and those friendships are absolutely vital to their ongoing success. That's quite an impact to have made over 17 years."

Martin is a veteran of 33 years of higher education management. As vice chancellor for advancement for the USM, he is responsible for System public relations, public affairs and fundraising. As president of the UMF, he leads an independent corporation that was established to receive gifts and manage property and endowment funds for System institutions. Perhaps his most notable achievement in both roles was the Make a Lasting Impression capital campaign, a five-year effort to raise $700 million and double the foundation's endowment. The campaign, which ended last summer, raised more than $900 million. It was widely regarded by fundraising experts as one of the most productive, efficient campaigns ever conducted for a system of public higher education.

Martin is a member of the board of trustees of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, serving as treasurer and as a member of its Investment and Marketing committees. He chairs the steering committee of the Association of Governing Board's Leadership Forum for Public University Foundation Executives. He also is a member of the board of directors for the House of Ruth in Baltimore.

Kirwan said a national search for a replacement for Martin will begin in the coming months.

Chris Hart
Phone: 301/445-2739
E-mail: chart@usmd.edu