VP of Univ. Relations will resign

After overseeing the university's fundraising efforts and alumni outreach for the last 12 years, Vice President of University Relations Brodie Remington will leave his position in 2012, he announced yesterday.

Over the last dozen years, Remington has been the point man on several university fundraising initiatives, including the Great Expectations campaign currently underway that seeks to bring in $1 billion alone in gifts. Remington announced his resignation in an email to the University Relations department yesterday.

"The time is right for me, and, I think, for the University. … This great University will need a vice president fully prepared to provide leadership for the next six to eight years or more. I am not," he wrote in the email.

Remington said he will leave his position once a new vice president is in place — which he said should happen by next fall — although he will still serve in the university relations office as an advisor until the end of 2012.

In the coming weeks, university President Wallace Loh will charge a committee to conduct a national search for Remington's successor, according to Loh's Chief of Staff Michelle Eastman.

With Remington at the helm, University Relations coined the term "Fear the Turtle," and expanded the university's alumni base dramatically. Under former university president Dan Mote, Remington also oversaw the Bold Vision, Bright Future campaign, which fundraised $456 million — $100 million more than its original goal.

In the final year of his tenure, Remington said he will reach the $1 billion fundraising goal of his Great Expectations campaign. The university still has $135 million to go before December 2012.

"Of course we have concerns about the darn economy, and the stock market goes down, down, down, a little up and then down," he said. "But we're optimistic and determined."

With the Great Expectations campaign's end on the horizon, Remington said a fresh face should help lead the university into its next era of fundraising.

"You know it when you feel it. … I might not be in a position to give 100 percent, and this is a job where you have to give 100 percent or you're not going to be successful," Remington said.

With Great Expectations holding the title of the state's largest public institution campaign, university officials said Remington has contributed more than enough to the university over the last decade.

"Not too many can say they've completed a $1 billion campaign to help a university, so he should be proud of that," said university Marketing Director Brian Ullmann.

And money aside, Ullmann said Remington had an impact on staff, students and the university's network of more than 300,000 alumni that stretched far beyond dollars raised.

"He certainly values the friendships he's made," Ullmann said. "When you deal with alumni the way Brodie does, you get with them on a personal level, you know about their kids, where they went to school. It really is about relationship building and it's a big part of what he's built here at Maryland."

Additionally, during his last several months at the university, Remington said he will prepare a "framework" for the department that will ultimately restore the department's staff and operating budget to its pre-recession levels.

"The framework will be a rough starting point from which the new vice president can decide how best to shape the organization and deploy resources in order to position [University Relations] for the challenges and opportunities ahead," he wrote to his staff.

In an email to the university community, Loh thanked Remington for his success in leading fundraising campaigns during an unforgiving economic climate.

"He performed his most important job with an energy, a dedication, and a commitment that were recognized and appreciated by all who worked with him," Loh wrote.

Looking forward, Remington said the university should not have any trouble attracting qualified and innovative candidates with the necessary experience to take the university's fundraising to the next level.

"People go to the Yankees, not someone at the bottom of the barrel. Now Maryland has arrived, it is great and it can be even greater … and it's going to be a terrific professional opportunity for my successor," he said.  

lurye@umdbk.com