News Release

Michael C. Eicher, who led the University of California, Los Angeles, in a record-setting $3 billion fund-raising campaign, has been appointed vice president for development and alumni relations at The Johns Hopkins University.

Eicher, currently UCLA's vice chancellor for external affairs, will have responsibility for attracting private financial support for the university and Johns Hopkins Medicine and for strengthening Johns Hopkins' relationships with alumni and other supporters.

Eicher is one of the nation's leading university advancement professionals, said William R. Brody, president of the university, who appointed Eicher with the approval of the university's trustees.

"The committee I charged with identifying [former vice president] Bob Lindgren's successor concluded that Mike Eicher is the right choice for Johns Hopkins," Brody said. "I fully concur, and am delighted that Mike has determined that Johns Hopkins is the right choice for him at this point in his career."

Eicher, who will join Johns Hopkins on Sept. 1, said that Brody himself was a major factor in that choice.

"Bill Brody is one of the great university presidents in the country and has built a tremendous team," Eicher said. "He is an extraordinary leader and the opportunity to work with him is very, very exciting."

Eicher will assume leadership for the Johns Hopkins: Knowledge for the World campaign, an effort under way since 2000. Though it has already met its $2 billion overall goal, the campaign, announced as a seven-year effort, continues to solicit support for critical unmet needs, including student aid and faculty chairs, construction of hospital buildings and renovation projects such as the Homewood campus's Gilman Hall.

Eicher has been vice chancellor at UCLA since 1998, but has been with the university since 1986. He rose from associate director of development in the School of Medicine to deputy director and director, and from there to vice provost for medical science development, and assistant and associate vice chancellor before landing his current job.

Campaign UCLA, a 10-year effort completed last December, raised $3.05 billion, a record for U.S. universities, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Gifts to the UCLA campaign supported 30,000 scholarships and fellowships. They also included more than $630 million for new facilities and renovations and about $1.7 billion for research, health care and other medical programs.

Eicher graduated from the University of California, San Diego, in 1979.

Note: A photograph of Eicher is available from Dennis O'Shea. See contact information above.