News

Beers tabbed as UMaine’s new vice president of development

By Tony Reaves

Posted on April 13, 2006, at 12:00 a.m.

andrew gordon

Development Director - Barbara Beers, a 1974 graduate of UMaine, was recently named as the university's vice president of development.

The University of Maine recently named Barbara Beers the school’s new vice president of development. Beers, a UMaine graduate and Maine native, has decades of fundraising experience at Maine Public Broadcasting Network and Husson College as well as Beers Associates, Consultants in Philanthropy, her own consulting business that she started in 1992.

Beers’ hiring comes months after President Robert Kennedy announced a $150 million fundraising campaign, the largest in the school’s history. As vice president of development, Beers will oversee private fundraising, relations with donors and corporate support. She already has fundraising experience with the university, having helped UMaine raise funds to build the Buchanan Alumni House.

Beers graduated from UMaine in 1974 with a degree in journalism. Even as a student and a writer for The Maine Campus, Beers demonstrated her ability to go above and beyond. She recalls an incident where she was assigned to try horsemeat from a shop in Bangor and write about it.

“I did what my editor told me to,” said Beers. She said she and her husband-to-be bought a couple of steaks and fried them up. “It wasn’t all that bad, either,” Beers admitted, adding that she loves horses and hasn’t eaten one since.

After college, Beers went to work for Husson College, running their alumni relations program and working on development and public information. Soon, MPBN hired her as a public information manager, later promoting her to director of development.

Beers ran all fundraising and public information programs for the network until Bob Woodbury, then chancellor of the University of Maine system, enlisted her for a project. In 1992, Beers helped the university system garner funding for a closed-circuit instructional television program called ITV.

That same year, she began her Bangor-based consulting business. Beers Associates, Consultants in Philanthropy helped nonprofit organizations raise money, and it was while helping the Bangor Symphony Orchestra that she crossed paths with Anne Pooler. Pooler, Associate Dean for Instruction in the department of education & human development, had a good first impression of Beers.

“I was president of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and we were looking at initiating a $1 million endowment,” said Pooler. It was the BSO’s first time seeking so much money, and the original person they hired was unsuccessful. “We ended up hiring Barbara and her company; we met our goal,” said Pooler.

Pooler chaired the committee at UMaine that eventually hired Beers last month, but said she didn’t base her decision solely on her previous experience with Beers. “That was a different venue, and I just wanted to see how she resonated here on campus.”

It didn’t hurt that the UMaine Alumni Association, who also had a say in hiring, had seen Beers’ work in helping raise money for the $7.3 million Buchanan Alumni House. “The people from that committee certainly knew what her capabilities were,” said Pooler.

The new campaign to raise $150 million in six years doesn’t intimidate Beers. “It will be at least $150 million,” she said. “I hope to go well beyond that.” Beers said a campaign of this size is conducted in the same way as any other, the only difference being the goal. “It’s a greater emphasis on endowments rather than building,” Beers said.

The campaign is looking for $60 million for endowed chairs and professorships, $40 million for scholarships and $40 million to go to building renovations and restorations. The remaining $10 million would go into a fund which Beers said would give UMaine “the flexibility to take advantage of exceptional opportunities that we might not have funding in the general budget for.”

Beers got the position after a nationwide search. According to Joe Carr, director of university relations for UMaine, two other candidates for the position visited the university.

Pooler said Beers’ experience with academic institutions, and with UMaine in particular, made her an ideal candidate. “We felt that the work she did with this campus gave her a background and a knowledge that was more solid than someone who came from the private sector and didn’t have any academic background.”

“Her experience and leadership skills will enable us to meet the considerable challenges that come with a campaign of this magnitude and importance for UMaine’s future,” said UMaine President Robert Kennedy in a press release.

As a UMaine alum with numerous ties to the university, Beers is passionate about her new job.

“I come from a family with five children and out of the five of us, four of us either attended or graduated from the university,” Beers said.

“I’m married to an alumnus, and now my son is a junior here at the University of Maine. I think rather than just transforming the institution, a campaign like this really has the capacity to transform Maine.”

Campus Currents: Bangor Symphony Orchestra