Knetter looks ahead as new UW Foundation president

When he became president of the UW Foundation on Oct. 16, Michael Knetter was doing what has become natural: pursuing an opportunity he saw as important.

Early in his career, that was teaching undergraduate economics at Dartmouth College and eventually the MBA students at its Amos Tuck School of Business. “That’s a highly regarded program,” says Knetter, who earned his bachelor’s degrees in economics and mathematics in 1983 from UW–Eau Claire and a doctoral degree in economics from Stanford University in 1988. “They place their graduates in great places. It was exciting to be one of their key faculty members.”

The deanship of the Wisconsin School of Business offered the Rhinelander native a chance to return to his home state and energize a well-regarded institution in 2002.

“We have a great business school. It has more students than they have at the Tuck School. It has a big undergraduate program,” he says. “I thought, ‘You know, we could probably add even more value by bringing alumni into the life of the school more, not just through their financial gifts.’ The ways the alumni engage with the business school has a big impact on the outcomes for the students.”

Once on campus, the mind that led to Knetter being a senior staff economist for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers for presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton started considering the economic model for higher education at UW–Madison and beyond.

“Since I’ve been here in Wisconsin, when you look at the landscape of higher education, it’s been a constantly moving target in terms of the financial blend of tax money, tuition and private gifts funding the core operations of the university,” he says. “That’s only going to accelerate with the financial crisis and its aftermath. People are concerned about state fiscal conditions. University funding will shift more and more toward tuition dollars and gift money, and it is more important than ever to align gifts with top priorities.”

Getting involved in the gift part of that equation made more than a little sense to Knetter.

“The foundation job was appealing to me because it’s been really important to the university historically and it will only become more important over time,” he says. “It’s also the part of the job of the dean, if (Chancellor) Biddy Martin were grading me, she’d probably say, ‘Well, Mike, that’s a class you did pretty well in.’” That last statement is accompanied by a smile from the man who put together the Wisconsin Naming Gift, originally $85 million in largely discretionary gift funds from 13 partners to preserve the Wisconsin School of Business name for at least 20 years. A 14th partner has since joined in the gift, and more than $5 million was raised to make Knetter the honorary “15th Naming Partner” on his departure from the school.

“I like development. I like engaging people. I like being a spokesperson for what we do at the University of Wisconsin, because I’m proud of it, and it’s energizing to talk with external stakeholders about our mission,” he says.

Knetter is the third president in the foundation’s 65-year history, following in the footsteps of Robert Rennebohm and Andrew A. “Sandy” Wilcox. He is cognizant of the way that the foundation traditionally has not made itself the center of attention while raising, investing and distributing billions of dollars in support of the university. “That’s as it should be,” he says. “We will remain an independent organization that is very important to the work done on campus.

“That doesn’t mean we don’t have points of view on these issues, and it doesn’t mean that these issues won’t partly define what our campaigns are about,” he adds. “I think it’s very important that all of us at the foundation understand at a great level of detail what the state of play is for the financing of higher education in America.”

To that end, Knetter has seen philanthropy’s impact on campus firsthand. “The importance of giving has steadily grown in magnitude, and that may accelerate,” he says. “It is critical we focus on the priorities that advance the university’s mission and motivate our alumni and friends in order to have maximum impact.”

Knetter is aware that there may be unease about him being partial to his former school, but he assures that won’t be the case. “I pride myself on doing the work I was hired to do, and I love this university and its breadth of mission.”

One thing that’s clear to Knetter is how important public universities continue to be. “Public universities develop so much of the nation’s human capital,” he says. “This public university is particularly special because it is also a world-class research institution. That makes us uniquely valuable as an engine of growth for the state and a transformational entity for the world.”