At a time when private money is becoming ever more vital to the UC Davis campus, Chancellor Linda Katehi announced Thursday she had found her man to haul in the donations.

Shaun Keister, 40, who has served in development jobs at Florida State, Iowa State and Penn State universities, has been named UCD’s first vice chancellor for development and alumni relations. He also will serve as president of the UC Davis Foundation.

“Shaun impressed us with his nearly 20 years of experience in fundraising across a broad spectrum of educational, arts and conservation organizations,” said Katehi, who continues to remake her leadership team, in a news release.

“This position is key to the future success of this university and, with Shaun’s wide range of management, planning and budgeting experience, I’m confident that he will help lead our campus to a new level of accomplishment in fundraising.”

Keister arrives with UCD having raised $696 million toward a goal of $1 billion by 2014 in its first-ever comprehensive fundraising campaign. Once it reaches that goal, Katehi has in mind a “second, more ambitious campaign,” according to the news release.

“And it is for this next campaign, as much as for the current one,” she said, “that UC Davis needs a dynamic, engaging and visionary leader for its development efforts. Shaun is that leader.”

Keister has helped launched three major university campaigns:

* A $2 billion campaign now under way at Penn State, as associate vice president for development;

* An $800 million campaign at Iowa State, as vice president for development outreach; and

* Another $458 million campaign at the Ames, Iowa, campus, as assistant vice president for development services.

Keister said he is looking forward to the challenge of his new post.

“UC Davis is among the nation’s top public research universities and is committed to its mission to address society’s critical issues,” he said in the news release, “and that is what higher education philanthropy is all about in the 21st century.”

Keister served at Penn State from 2008 until May of this year. In each of the past three years, the university raised more that $250 million in gifts and donations.

In addition to the comprehensive campaign, dubbed the “Campaign for UC Davis,” launched in 2006, UCD has raised more than $100 million in philanthropic support for five consecutive years.

Bringing in more money, and fast, is a necessity. The Davis campus has weathered record tuition increases, faculty and staff furloughs, layoffs and more, absorbing $222 million in state cuts over the past three fiscal years.

It faces another $107 million shortfall this year, including $73 million in cuts. The recently approved 9.6 percent tuition increase largely offsets what would have been an unplanned-for $22 million in state cuts to the campus.

Keister also has served as an independent fundraising consultant for more than 20 public and private universities, as well as other organizations including the San Francisco Opera, Steppenwolf Theatre, World Wildlife Fund and The Nature Conservancy.

Keister holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Penn State and a master’s and doctoral degree in sociology from Iowa State.

Keister will be paid an annual base salary of $335,000. He is the latest in a series of high-level hires at UCD.

Last October, Katehi named her new vice chancellor for research, Harris Lewin, the former director of Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. A month later, she announced the selection of Ralph Hexter, formerly president of Hampshire College, as UCD’s new provost and vice chancellor.

UC Regent Frederick Ruiz, chairman of the UC Board of Regents compensation committee, OK’d Keister’s appointment on July 15. That action will be reported to the full board in September.

— Reach Cory Golden at [email protected] or (530) 747-8046.

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