Vice President for Advancement and Strategic Ventures

Founded in 1842 in Delaware, Ohio, Ohio Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts university committed to connecting classroom learning with real-world application. For more than 180 years, OWU has prepared students for meaningful careers and purposeful lives, anchored in the belief that a rigorous liberal arts education is the most powerful foundation a young person can have.

Today, Ohio Wesleyan stands at one of the most consequential and energized moments in its history. Under the leadership of President Dr. Matt vandenBerg, the University has defined an audacious and distinctive market position, America's University for Ambitious Self-Discovery, that addresses one of higher education's most persistent challenges: the pressure placed on 17- and 18-year-olds to have life figured out before it has even started.

OWU's response is bold, structured, gaining national attention, and already producing measurable results.

A University on the Move

Since Dr. vandenBerg took office as OWU's 17th president in 2023, the University has moved with uncommon speed and purpose. In addition to the initiatives highlighted below, Ohio Wesleyan has become the first university in the nation to provide formal constructive dialogue training to every student, faculty member, and staff member. The University's partnership with Claflin University stands as one of the first and most comprehensive agreements between a predominantly white institution and a historically Black university in American higher education. OWU's solar energy initiative will make it Ohio's leading campus for solar production, reducing its carbon footprint by 82 percent. The U.S. Entrepreneurship Competition, hosted on OWU's campus, has grown into the second largest in the nation and the largest in Ohio. And OWU recorded its largest transfer class in its 183-year history, earning national recognition as one of the most transfer-friendly colleges in the country.

This accumulation of results reflects what Dr. vandenBerg calls a rebellion with results: a community-wide commitment to boldness, innovation, and purposeful action that is drawing national and international attention.

A Strategic Plan Built to Win

Ohio Wesleyan's emerging strategic plan operationalizes its market position through five reinforcing pillars:

• Self-Discovery: A Four-Year Guarantee that allows students to explore boldly without fear of setback or financial penalty.
• Pathways: Flexible, multi-year pathways, from two to six years, that meet students where they are, including industry-leading support for first-generation students.
• Experiential Learning: The OWU Connection, the nation's most fully integrated experiential learning program at a liberal arts university, combining research, internships, study away, service, and entrepreneurship with personal growth and career preparation.
• Power Skills: Independently validated microcredentials and certificate programs in high-impact careers, giving students the intellectual agility of a liberal arts education alongside subject expertise that employers demand.
• Societal Impact: OWU as a civic and economic force in Central Ohio and beyond, through FounderU, the Delaware County Promise, ambitious public-private partnerships, and a commitment to making higher education more accessible and affordable.

Momentum That Is Real and Measurable

Ohio Wesleyan's strategic vision is already producing results that speak for themselves:

Enrollment
1,656 students, up from approximately 1,300, a decade high

Retention
84-85% retention rate, consistently achieved

Recognition
Named to U.S. News & World Report's Most Innovative Colleges

First-Year Class
571 students, the largest incoming class in 17 years

Philanthropy
$69.4M in philanthropic support in FY2025, a record

Consecutive Growth
Three consecutive years of enrollment growth

Ohio Wesleyan is a university in full ascent, executing with discipline and speed on a vision that is proving both distinctive and durable.

Innovation in Action

Several signature initiatives illustrate the ambition and execution capacity that define OWU today:

Conrades School of Engineering: Launched with a $17 million endowment and industry partnerships, blending liberal arts rigor with engineering innovation and expanding OWU's reach to students drawn to both technical and humanistic ways of thinking.

FounderU and the Delaware Entrepreneurial Center: OWU is building the premier educational ecosystem for emerging founders of all ages and stages. The on-campus incubator is evolving into a national platform, a startup community anchored by a university that understands what it means to build something from nothing.

Delaware County Promise:A landmark public-private partnership with the City of Delaware, Delaware County, private donors, and the Delaware County Foundation that makes an OWU education free for income-eligible Delaware County students, strengthening access, enrollment pipelines, and community bonds simultaneously.

John F. Milligan Library: The nation's first fine-arts-infused main campus library, a $45 million project that anchors campus transformation, links student experience with academic mission, and signals OWU's commitment to bold, purposeful design.

Smith Center for Faculty Excellence and Palmer Center for First-Generation Student Success:Institutional investments that are rare at liberal arts colleges at any scale, demonstrating OWU's commitment to the full ecosystem of student and faculty excellence.

Campus and Community

Ohio Wesleyan's 200-acre campus sits in the heart of Delaware, Ohio, a growing, vibrant community of approximately 40,000 residents located 25 miles north of Columbus, one of the fastest-growing major cities in the United States. The University is deeply woven into Delaware's civic and economic fabric, and that relationship is a strategic asset that the next VP for Advancement and Strategic Ventures will be expected to deepen and leverage.

OWU's 1,656 students come from across the United States and more than 70 countries. The University fields 24 varsity athletic programs and is a member of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC).

THE OPPORTUNITY

Ohio Wesleyan seeks a Vice President for Advancement and Strategic Ventures who is ready to step into one of the most expansive and consequential advancement roles in liberal arts higher education.

President Dr. Matt vandenBerg, himself a veteran of advancement leadership including service as Vice President for Advancement and External Relations at Alma College, has intentionally redesigned this portfolio to reflect a fundamental conviction: that the boundaries between philanthropy, strategic partnerships, entrepreneurship, and revenue generation are artificial, and that the leader who can move fluidly across all of them will create extraordinary value for the institution and the community it serves.

The VP for Advancement and Strategic Ventures will serve as a senior member of the President's cabinet, reporting directly to the President. This officer will lead a comprehensive portfolio spanning the full breadth of institutional advancement alongside a set of strategic venture responsibilities that reflect the full ambition of OWU's vision.

The timing is extraordinary. OWU enters this search with record philanthropic momentum, enrollment growth, a bold and proven strategic plan, a transformative comprehensive campaign on the horizon, and a pipeline of partnerships and ventures that require exactly the kind of creative, entrepreneurial advancement leadership this role demands.

To see the complete job posting visit the OWU Career Information page.