UConn’s fundraising arm on Wednesday named a philanthropic executive from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), as its new CEO and president.
The UConn Foundation said Scott M. Roberts will take office on May 28, succeeding Joshua R. Newton, who left in Aug. 2018 to take a job at Atlanta’s Emory University.
John Fodor, a retired global distribution executive, has served as interim CEO/president since Newton’s departure.
Roberts’ current post is vice president of philanthropy and alumni engagement and president of the UNLV Foundation. He is taking over a foundation based in Storrs that notched record donations of nearly $400 million in 2018.
UConn said it conducted a national search before landing on Roberts. Outgoing UConn President Susan Herbst and incoming President Tom Katsouleas, who will take office Aug. 1, were involved in the interview process.
While serving as UNLV’s chief advancement officer and a member of the president’s leadership team, Roberts had oversight of $280 million in funding at the UNLV Foundation. He also led a team of 90 staff members.
During his nine-year tenure at UNLV, the school’s foundation raised more than $500 million and experienced a 56 percent increase in gifts and a 51 percent rise in donors. The UNLV Foundation set a fundraising record of $93 million in fiscal year 2017.
Prior to joining UNLV, Roberts served as director of university development at Pittsburg State University in Kansas for over six years.
“Scott is an outstanding choice with a proven track record of effective alumni engagement, substantial fundraising success, and building key relationships at every level,” Herbst said in a statement. “He was very much a stand-out candidate who articulated a clear and compelling vision for the future of philanthropy at UConn and a roadmap for getting there.”