If good management consists of intentional planning, prioritization, and monitoring organization processes, then good leadership is doing what is necessary to guide that organization as it goes through those work processes. Organizations are made up of people, hence, leadership must creatively engage with the different ways people work and interact within the community. Therefore, every organization, as a system of interdependent individuals and functions, react in positive and negative ways to the pressures of work. It is the alignment of these reactions and movements in support of goal-oriented tasks, which is the heart of leading, and leading is at the heart of fundraising.

Ann
Owner and Managing Director

Ann’s career in the academic and non-profit worlds spans almost 40 years as a professor, development professional, senior manager, and fundraising development consultant.

Ann earned a BA from Princeton University and a PhD in philosophy from UC Berkeley. She taught philosophy at Stanford University for seven years before moving back to Princeton University in 1988 and starting her career in development.  After positions in leadership gifts and corporate and foundation fundraising, Ann was named director of development for Princeton University. She was an integral part of the senior planning team for the university’s $1 billion campaign.

In 1993, Ann joined UC Berkeley and worked in resources, development and public affairs. In close collaboration with university leadership, she planned and implemented a campaign that set a new record for college fundraising.

In 2003, Ann left UC Berkeley’s permanent staff to devote full-time to consulting. She started working closely in particular with UC Berkeley’s associate vice chancellor of university resources and with the UC Berkeley Foundation. One of the highlights of her consulting work for UC Berkeley up until now has been the $3 billion Campaign for Berkeley which was successfully completed in 2013. Her network of clients includes some of the most prestigious universities, colleges, and independent schools of the US.

Ann has extensive experience as an organizational consultant and leadership coach, particularly in institutions of higher education. She characterizes her work in fundraising and organizational development as applied philosophy. Understanding the correlation between the philosophy of philanthropists and the mission-driven institutions they support is essential to the success of both.

Peter
Associate

Peter has more than twenty years of professional experience in strategic and operative fundraising and direct marketing. Originally from Germany, he offers a wide network in these disciplines both in Europe and in the United States. His academic background includes a Master in Business Administration and a B.A. in Administrative Sciences and Law from Business Management School, Groningen and Humboldt University, Berlin. He worked as senior advisor on fundraising, direct marketing and management for international trusts, NGOs and universities, and served as managing director of the German Fundraising Association until 2010. In this function, he initiated cooperation between the German Fundraising Association and the American Association of Fundraising Professionals focusing on major donor relations of European and US American universities and colleges. In 2011, he joined Ann Miller and has since led a series of projects on international education fundraising, particularly with the University of California at Berkeley. Peter has worked directly with leaders of a variety of functions including Institutional Advancement, Operations, Development, Finance, Marketing and Communications. He has also worked with leaders in Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and Enrollment. Since institutional leadership necessarily means leading an ongoing emergence, Peter’s work often focuses on managing the impact of change on the people and relationships needed for success.

 
Kate
Associate

Kate offers extensive experience as an organizational consultant and leadership coach. After a B.A. in English Literature and Psychology at Long Island University, New York, she went on to graduate in Psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She quickly specialized in workplace psychology and built up a strong network of clients in this field before joining Ann Miller in 2005. For the past ten years her work has primarily focused on the world of mission driven organizations and institutions. She consults with presidents and senior leaders to help lead their institutions through whatever phases of evolutionary change they find themselves in. Having worked with leaders in institutions as diverse as the UC Berkeley, UC Los Angeles, University of Chicago, Swarthmore College, and Harvard Medical School, Kate brings extensive experience in all dimensions of institutional leadership and especially to the roll out of strategic plans and the establishment of successful leadership teams.

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