University Times

Albert J. Novak Jr., who had been interim vice chancellor for Institutional Advancement (IA) for the past year, received a permanent appointment to the job this week.

Novak, 43, came to Pitt in 1997 as associate vice chancellor for corporate and foundation giving. In naming him to succeed Carol Carter, who resigned as IA vice chancellor last October, Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg said: “This past year, under [Novak’s] leadership as interim vice chancellor, we had another record-breaking year, despite a very challenging economic environment. With this appointment, we are taking an important step to make certain that we can build on our existing momentum.”

Last year, after announcing that Pitt had reached its original $500 million capital campaign goal 13 months ahead of schedule, Pitt’s trustees and senior administrators increased the goal to raising $1 billion by 2007.
As of this week, Pitt has raised $615 million (80 percent in cash received, the remainder in pledges), Novak said.

“I’m very confident that we will meet the goal, but when that happens will depend on the economy,” he told the University Times. “Certainly, it should happen by 2007 or possibly 2008, but if the economy bounces back to where it was when we started this campaign, probably it will be earlier.” Despite the sour economy, Pitt set institutional records last year for most cash received in a single year ($94.5 million, 25 percent more than the previous year), best annual fund year ever ($11.3 million, 5 percent more than the year before), highest number of donors ever (40,842, up by 8 percent over the prior year) and highest number of alumni donors ever (30,430, 5 percent more than the year before).

So far, the campaign has generated funding for 42 new endowed chairs and professorships and 187 new endowed scholarships and fellowships, Nordenberg said in a statement announcing Novak’s appointment.
Novak came to Pitt from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was development director for the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management from 1991 to 1994, the university’s director of foundations relations from 1992 to 1994, and the university’s director of corporate and foundation relations from 1994 to 1997.

— Bruce Steele