Stephen Moret’s decision to leave the LSU Foundation to lead the Virginia Economic Development Partnership took many by surprise. Moret has only been at the helm of the foundation for 18 months, and the ambitious, statewide capital campaign he has been planning during his tenure there won’t even kick off publicly until some time in 2018 or later.
His pending departure was also a well-kept secret. Foundation board members didn’t even find out about it until this morning, shortly before it was announced publicly.
But while the turn of events was unexpected, LSU Foundation officials insist Moret’s departure won’t derail the advancement initiatives he has put in place since he took over at the organization in mid-2015.
“Directionally, no, this won’t change anything,” says Robert Stuart, incoming chairman of the LSU Foundation board of directors. “The blueprint is there … and we feel terrific about it and finding the right leader to execute it.”
Moret took over at the foundation after leaving Louisiana Economic Development, which he headed for eight years during the Jindal administration, and immediately set about overhauling the underperforming agency. He hired national fundraising consultants Marts and Lundy to assess the university’s existing efforts and help craft a blueprint for future development, and, for the first time, brought all the LSU campuses together to support the effort.
At the behest of LSU President F. King Alexander, he also began working more closely with two other support organization at LSU—the LSU Alumni Association and the Tiger Athletic Association—and stepped up coordination among the three groups.
More recently, he added several key positions to the LSU Foundation team, which still lags behind peer institutions in terms of staffing levels. Among those positions are an executive director of corporate and foundation relations and a senior director of annual giving.
Earlier this fall, the foundation rolled out the first phase of a revamped annual giving campaign, which includes a more targeted and strategic email, telephone and direct mail appeal to nearly 200,000 university alumni. Meanwhile, plans are continuing to move forward for a $1.2 billion capital campaign.
With Moret’s departure, Stuart cannot say for sure whether the campaign will now kick off in 2018, 2019 or later.
“Those are details we’re still working through,” he says. “But strategically, the direction of the campaign will not change.”
Stuart can say with certainty that the board plans to move quickly to replace Moret. He says it’s likely the board will appoint an interim president at its upcoming December meeting, if not before, and will immediately begin looking for a permanent president and CEO to begin implementing the plans Moret laid.
“We are going to try to move very expeditiously in bringing in a new leader, in collaboration with LSU,” he says. “This has come up relatively quickly, so we are thinking through the right transition and thinking through the right approach to replace Stephen.”
—Stephanie Riegel
