CORPORATIONS

Corporate Experience: Overview

• More than two decades of experience with Fortune 500 corporations nationwide, as well as across Louisiana and regionally.
• I pride myself on aggressively and successfully pursuing value-added “win-win” partnerships with companies, regardless of the mission and size of my nonprofit or university clients. Read, for example, my piece on how arts and humanities organizations can make a stronger “business case” for corporate support.
• For a complete list of companies I have experience with, click here.

A Few Highlights:

• My Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR) at Louisiana State University’s Baton Rouge flagship campus developed or improved relationships with dozens of major corporate partners, e.g., IBM, Intel, ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, HP, ConocoPhillips, BP, Dow, Schlumberger, Cisco, Northrop-Grumman, Marathon, AT&T, Dell, et. al.
• Created and led LSU’s first “one-stop shop” for CFR responsiveness, both internally (across university departments) and externally with corporate partners.
• Managed from start to finish the acquisition of a $3.5 million cash gift from the Shell Oil Company and Foundation. State matching monies elevated the gift to $4.3 million, making it the 2nd largest corporate cash gift in LSU history.
• With the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (2009 – 2015), I built precedent-setting, 5, 6, and 7-figure partnerships with Entergy, Cheniere, BP, Shell Oil, Capital One, Union Pacific, BHP Billiton, et. al. See here for some highlights.
• My consulting assistance (prospect identification and coordination of solicitations) helped set a record for corporate sponsorships/donations and net profits for the Council for A Better Louisiana’s (CABL) Annual Meeting on December 7, 2017.
• With the University of New Mexico (2000 – 2002) and College of Santa Fe (1997-1998), I secured 5 and 6-figure cash and technology donations from Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Sun Microsystems, AT&T Foundation, PNM Foundation, Gateway 2000, ALLTEL, and Silicon Graphics, Inc.
• Extensive training experience with college/university and nonprofit boards in modern, best-practice driven corporate relations.

Advanced Experience: CFRR

• Under the direction of LSU Chancellor Sean O’Keefe and Interim Vice President and Provost Harold Silverman, and working collaboratively with deans, department chairs, development officers, and faculty campus wide, I created LSU’s first Office of Corporate, Foundation, and Research Relations (CFRR), circa 2006-08.
• Notable LSU CFRR initiatives included:
  • The “LSU Energy Initiative,” the university’s first comprehensive assemblage of multidisciplinary research and related academic strengths across all disciplines and centers relevant to the oil and gas industry. LSU’s subsequent outreach to major corporations, managed via my office, generated record donations from Shell, BP, Chevron, Marathon, and others. See here for a white paper on this initiative, and here for positive industry press reaction.
  • Additional MDI’s (multidisciplinary initiatives) included: high performance computing (the internationally known Center for Computation and Technology); aerospace (led by NASA Astronaut Leroy Chiao); poverty alleviation (the Louisiana Poverty Initiative); and digital media (the Arts, Visualization, Advanced Technologies and Research Initiative).
• I traveled frequently across the USA (often with teams of faculty) pursuing major corporate engagements focused on LSU’s top academic and research departments, units, and centers. My office coordinated numerous high-level corporate engagements, both on the LSU campus and at company-specific locations and centers, e.g., Schlumberger/ExxonMobil/Shell in TX (Greater Houston and Dallas/ Irving); AT&T in Florham Park, NJ; IBM in Austin, TX and Poughkeepsie, NY; Dell/AMD/Texas Instruments in Austin, TX; and Northrop Grumman in Los Angeles, CA.

For details on this record-setting event, click here