Executive Director of Engagement
The Executive Director of Engagement, Thunderbird, is a seasoned development professional with a global mindset and a proven track record of soliciting, securing, and stewarding major and lead gifts. The Executive Director will work with the Dean and Director General of Thunderbird, the Chief Global Advancement Officer, and colleagues to lead and execute a comprehensive development strategy and work to successfully close the current Campaign for the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
While the Executive Director’s portfolio will focus around major/lead gift prospects, he or she will be involved in the full range of philanthropic funding sources, from high-net-worth individuals and trusts to corporations and foundations, as well as estate and planned giving work and annual fund/donor acquisition programs. The Executive Director will have a general familiarity with this work across the Thunderbird team and will lead Thunderbird’s global development efforts. The Executive Director of Engagement will be fully conversant in all aspects of the School’s programs and strategic objectives and will represent the School at a high level with donors, alumni, and other key stakeholders, as well as with university and foundation leadership.
The Executive Director reports to the Chief Global Advancement Officer of the ASU Foundation with a ‘dotted line’ reporting relationship to Thunderbird’s Director General & Dean.
The Organization
Thunderbird School of Global Management is the vanguard of global leadership, management, and business education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We are much more than a school. Thunderbird is a global network of future-ready leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs across the private and public sectors who advance inclusive and sustainable prosperity worldwide.
Developing a new generation of global leaders for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) requires innovation in how we think about and execute higher education. Thunderbird’s rigorous curriculum provides the transdisciplinary, hands-on, cross-cultural education and experience that empowers leaders to transform the management practices of global organizations. The opportunities and challenges of this new era of disruption and rapid change are too complex to be addressed by one specialized discipline. That’s why Thunderbird leverages the full potential of Arizona State University’s vast Knowledge Enterprise, providing students with the learning, the resources, and the networks to actuate positive and systemic change as leaders in business, government, and the nonprofit sector, or in any other profession they choose.
Thunderbird has always attracted a unique kind of student. Our global network of more than 45,000 alumni represents a broad spectrum of leaders with backgrounds and specializations that vary as widely as the dreams that guided them to where they are in life. What unites these T-birds are the qualities that brought them to Thunderbird, a desire to make a difference in the world, a drive to create prosperity and solve problems, their social curiosity, and their ability to excel in challenging work environments across cultures, anywhere on the planet.
For more information on the history and future of Thunderbird, go to: www.thunderbird.asu.edu
To access the phenomenal opportunities that exist through successful engagement with Thunderbird alumni globally, we are seeking to connect with exceptional candidates with the right skill set, track record of securing 6 and 7 figure donations, and ambition, who will grasp this opportunity, particularly as the School prepares the public phase of its current comprehensive campaign.
This is an ideal opportunity for a high-performing development professional with a global mindset, who has proven experience developing innovative and impactful donor strategies and who has worked within a fast-paced organization.
The successful candidate must possess outstanding interpersonal and communications skills, capable of forging collegial and productive working relationships with a broad range of personality types and styles. This person must have unquestioned integrity, curiosity, and the ability to listen and learn from others.
Comfortable working in a goal-oriented and rapidly evolving environment, the applicant should possess:
- 10+ years’ successful professional development and/or fundraising-related experience,
preferably in higher education, or related field.
- Experience in leading teams and working collaboratively with colleagues to support a common mission.
- Experience, ability, and desire to work in a global environment.
- Problem solver who can take initiative and set priorities while being flexible.
- Fluency or familiarity with languages other than English.
- Ability to travel (including international travel) and interact with donors approximately 50% of the time.
- Flexible, collaborative style, combined with the ability and desire to work in a results-oriented, dynamic environment with complex and evolving relationships and priorities.
- Demonstrated knowledge of principles and techniques of development/fundraising, preferably in higher education.
- Team-oriented strategist able to effectively manage complex situations involving numerous and sometimes competing constituencies.