VC of University of California, Berkeley, Julie Hooper, Shares Her Leadership Story: Climbing the Mountain to $7B

?In this Coach’s Corner, Julie Hooper shares her ascent to the top advancement role at UC Berkeley and insights about how she led the program to raise over $7B. You will enjoy reading about how she navigated the complexities of nonprofit leadership to assuming increasingly higher levels of responsibility in higher education and how each step prepared her for the challenges and opportunities that have come her way.

How did you find your way into advancement work? And when did you think you had the ambition and ability to do this role?

?During grad school, I had the opportunity to spend a summer in New York City as the Halina Rosenthal Fellow, working for the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts. It was a game changer in exposing me to community-based organization work. When I left graduate school in 1999, I had two competing offers back home in Austin – working for the Texas Historical Commission (THC) or running the local historic preservation nonprofit. So, when those two job offers back in Austin came my way, I jumped on the nonprofit executive director opportunity. Some people thought that I was crazy to pass up a job at the THC, but in the end, it worked out.

?I spent almost my first decade in leadership roles for nonprofits in Austin, including environmental education and social service agencies. In the executive director role, you wear every hat at the organization! And you are accountable to the organization’s governing board, to whom you report. And your fundraising work is very much tied to the ability to make payroll. It can be quite intense. But in hindsight, working for governing boards for almost a decade and dealing with the intricacies of running an organization prepared me well for my leadership roles in higher education.

?You became a VC at a top-tier university at a relatively young age; what do you think were the keys to assuming this role, and why do you think the leadership had confidence that you could do the job?

?Thanks for saying this, as I often feel like one of the older VPs sitting around the table!

?All kidding aside, I have been fortunate in my career to hold positions with progressively more responsibility and expectations. My first job out of college was in the home textile industry, sourcing products for our clients in India. Over time, I was given more responsibility to work directly with our clients in the US and our vendors in India and was promoted to my first management role for a small team in our office. There is nothing like having to make an international shipping deadline to have products in stores for a weekend sales circular promotion to teach you about good leadership and management skills!

?At the University of Texas, we had an unexpected leadership transition in the central office about 4 years into my tenure. I was honestly surprised to be asked to move to the University Development Office as an AVP as I was the Assistant Dean for the School of Architecture, which is one of the of smaller units on campus. My colleagues at Texas would have to validate this, but I was tapped by campus leadership to step in because I worked well with other units on campus and had good relationships with everyone. They trusted that I would be fair and transparent because that is how I operated as an assistant dean.

?At Cal, I was recruited for the Associate Vice-Chancellor position and became the interim Vice-Chancellor about a year after arriving (and the permanent Vice-Chancellor shortly after that). When we had an unexpected chancellor leadership transition in 2017, the new chancellor had not been the one to hire me for the job. I offered to step down so she could hire her person, and she said, “Let’s give it a year and see how it goes.” In hindsight, that was a scary offer for me to make. But she and I spent the first year traveling together and doing a lot of donor meetings and alumni events, and we really grew and jelled as a team. There is no better way for an advancement leader to get to know your new boss!

?I was fortunate to have the support of the UC Berkeley Foundation leadership, where I had invested a lot of time over my first few years at Cal, and that helped to reassure the new chancellor that I had a strong partnership from the leadership board for philanthropy. Being open to her ideas about how we might do things differently, based on her experiences leading Smith College for over a decade, was also an advantage in building our relationship. She was well prepared from her Smith experience for things we were trying to do to improve the advancement work at Berkeley and was a strong advocate for changes we put in place because of Fundraising 2.0. I was also recruiting my senior leadership team, and she was my advisor and partner on those hires. So, we were invested together. I also think we were lucky to have a similar tolerance for and comfort with change. She wanted to move quickly, and I was a good partner in that regard.

?Now in your 10th year, how has your leadership evolved? How have you shifted your energy, and what personal and professional muscles have grown?

?On the professional side, I would note the following:

●????? Feeling more comfortable saying no.

●????? Feeling more comfortable letting others take the lead.

●????? Feeling more confident sharing the tough stuff and admitting when I do not have the answers (going through a pandemic and multiple budget crises has strengthened this muscle, for certain).

●????? Feeling more confident being authentically who I am.

●????? Feeling OK that not everyone will like or agree with me.

During the last ten years at Berkeley, I have been through a lot of personal loss, including the deaths of my dad, my uncle, my husband’s half-sister, and my cousin’s child, who died from Tay-Sachs. I’ve been solidly reminded that our time on earth is limited, and none of us know how long we have here. Making meaningful time to be with the people we care about is important to me.?

What has been the most challenging issue you dealt with in the last 10 years? How did you handle it? What did you learn??

The unexpected leadership transitions in 2016 and 2017 at Berkeley were quite challenging. The EVCP, Claude Steele, had been our champion and partner on an initiative called Fundraising 2.0. He stepped down first due to personal reasons, and our chancellor unexpectedly announced that he would be stepping down. We were also dealing with several campus controversies, including a series of highly publicized issues around sexual harassment.

We were going through a series of critical cultural changes in advancement and implementing many new processes and policies for the work. Fortunately, our Council of Deans had been deeply involved with this, so I stayed even through a significant leadership transition. We were fortunate in that regard, so I focused very heavily on my relationships with the deans and the advancement leadership team and kept our eyes on the prize, so to speak. I also doubled down on my relationship with the leadership of the UC Berkeley Foundation. They were key partners during this challenging time. The lesson for me is that you cannot do it alone and need to call on your internal and external partners to weather the storm. And communicate more often than you think you need to – you really cannot over-communicate with key stakeholders in such situations. But this takes time, for certain.?

?What is your favorite part of the job?

I absolutely love working with the UC Berkeley Foundation, where I serve (by position) as President. I spent almost ten years working for nonprofit governing boards before moving to higher ed, and it’s something I truly enjoy doing. I am still in touch with board members from organizations where I served 25+ years ago!

?The donor-facing work also gives me great enjoyment. As vice chancellor, I see myself as a player-coach. Regardless of position, we all have a role to play in working with donors. It would be a terrible mistake to move into management and give up the donor facing work. But I also believe it is a mistake for VPs and other leaders to try to take relationships and gift conversations from other gift officers once the discussion has reached a certain point, etc. I am not certain how often this happens, but I have heard stories over the years.

?What trends are you experiencing in your work that will shape how you lead the program into the future?

?Hybrid work certainly comes to mind. I suggest following the research of Stanford faculty member Nick Bloom. I was introduced to him through the Advancement Leadership Forum. Professor Bloom’s research is on hybrid work, which he was doing before the pandemic. His insights are data-driven and analytical and are changing the landscape. We’ve been quite flexible with hybrid work in our office and will continue to be. But you certainly must think even more creatively about how to build and maintain culture and connection. It’s not easy, but I believe it is necessary and greatly benefits our staff, particularly caregivers.?

?From a leadership perspective, what have you done as a leader that has made the most significant difference in elevating the program?

?In terms of elevating our fundraising program, in 2014 and 2015, we undertook a major initiative called Fundraising 2.0. That work, which was complex and too long to describe in detail, resulted in significant cultural change in our community. We focused on delivering to all our donors a consistent, high-level giving experience at every opportunity. After the campaign that ended in 2013, the feedback from our top donors was that even though we were successful in our endeavors, giving to Berkeley felt like “death by a thousand mosquito bites.” We wanted to change that experience deliberately. Internally, much of the work we did then, which was focused around a partnership with the Council of Deans, resulted in a culture we refer to as “One Berkeley.” Along with the culture change, so many essential processes and policy changes resulted from that work, much of which we take for granted on campus today, but it set the stage for our success in the campaign that just ended.

?Additionally, the expansion of our Principal Gifts team and the merger of that team with the Strategic Initiatives group (we now call it PGSI) have been game changers. We closed ten gifts of $50M+ in this recent campaign, compared to one gift of $50M+ in the prior campaign. We have had three years of $1B+ fundraising totals and exceeded our overall campaign goal by $1.37B.

What keeps you up at night? Are these issues different today than 5 years ago?

The campus climate is very much keeping me up at night. What is happening on our campuses post-October 7th does not feel like a typical “students v. the administration” situation. Instead, it is students v. students, faculty v. faculty, etc. And we in the administration are in the middle. Each side feels unilaterally that you must take their side on these issues without any gray area in between. It weighs on me very heavily, I must say.

Ten years is a long tenure—how have you renewed yourself to maintain your excitement and interest in the role?

?Travel is a big one for me - especially traveling for vacation. Leaving the country and visiting “bucket” list places really gets me out of my head. I’ve become a much more avid reader in recent years, which helps me relax. I find cooking relaxing, too, and I will come home from a long day and enjoy chopping the veggies and prepping for the meal. I am way more into gardening in California than I ever was in Texas – the climate in Northern California is just so much better for growing things.

?What advice do you have for new VPs and those early in their tenure?

?Put your active listening skills to work - just like in donor discussions. Pay attention and devote time to building relationships with the president and provost. Ask many questions, even when you think you know the answer. Give praise regularly. Approach advancement like the team sport that it is – we need all parts of the team to be successful.

?Looking back on my career, I see that my challenges and transitions, particularly during my tenure at Berkeley, have shaped my leadership style. From handling unexpected leadership changes to navigating campus controversies, I have learned the importance of building strong relationships, effective communication, and relying on internal and external partners to weather storms. These experiences have reinforced my belief in the value of teamwork and collaboration in achieving success. As I continue to lead and evolve in my role, I am reminded of the importance of authenticity, resilience, and the support of those around me in driving meaningful impact and maintaining my passion for the work I do.

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