Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Mississippi State alumnus and fundraising veteran is the university's new executive director of development.
James V. "Bo" Hemphill IV now will lead efforts to obtain non-public funds, including constituency-based major fund raising, annual giving, planned giving, and corporate and foundation support. Hemphill succeeds John Rush, who was named MSU's vice president for development and alumni in April.
A Starkville native, Hemphill has been serving as development director for the College of Business and Industry. While he will assume the new administrative duties in early July, his appointment is pending formal approval of the Board of Trustees, State Institutions of Higher Learning.
He becomes the second member of his family to serve as foundation director. His father, James V. Hemphill III, held the position in the 1980s.
"We are pleased that Bo has accepted this new role with the foundation," Rush said. "His successful record with us over the past seven years demonstrates his commitment to furthering Mississippi State University through private fundraising efforts."
A 1994 business administration graduate, Hemphill joined the MSU Foundation staff in 2000. In a six-year period with the business college, he recorded $50 million in private gifts, surpassing the $34 million college goal set in the university's "State of the Future" campaign.
"State of the Future: The Mississippi State Campaign" is an ongoing effort to raise $400 million in private support for student scholarships and fellowships, endowed faculty positions, new and renovated facilities, and program enhancements. Currently exceeding $374 million, the effort is scheduled to conclude at the end of December 2008.
A separate $100 million "Reach for Excellence" initiative is working to raise $25 million in each of four categories: scholarships, student growth and development; faculty development; academic excellence; and campus appearance and preservation.
The MSU Foundation was established in 1962 to help attract support from private sources and now administers most campus fundraising activities and endowment funds, which currently exceed $250 million. Over the past five years, the foundation has averaged nearly $52 million annually in gifts from individual donors, corporations, foundations, trusts, and estates.
GOLDEN TRIANGLE EDITORS: Hemphill and his wife Tricia, also an MSU graduate, are the parents of three children, Mackenzie, Anna Grace and Mattye.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.