Paraguay RPCV John Garamendi Jr., will be vice chancellor for university relations at the nearly built University of California, Merced
Familiar name to lead university relations
By Adam Ashton
Merced Sun-Star
Merced, Calif.
May 27, 2005
A politically connected fund-raiser will take the reins as vice chancellor for university relations at the nearly built University of California, Merced.
John Garamendi Jr., son of the state insurance commissioner, will start work in Merced on Wednesday. He will be charged with community and government relations, development and fund-raising and coordinating special events.
Garamendi, who grew up in San Joaquin County, said he is eager to get to work building California's newest university back in his home turf -- the Central Valley.
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity you can't refuse," he said.
Garamendi, 34, will earn $180,000. He leaves a post at UC Berkeley where he oversaw corporate fund-raising and earned $128,000 a year, UC Merced spokeswoman Sheryl Lichtig Wyan said.
The UC Board of Regents is expected to approve Garamendi's appointment today. A regent subcommittee approved the move Wednesday, Wyan said.
Garamendi fills a spot vacated by Esteban Soriano, who retired from the position in January after a two-year tenure.
Garamendi has led several high profile money- making endeavors within the UC system recently. He worked on UC Berkeley's $1.1 billion Campaign for the New Century and UC Davis' $60 million Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts campaign.
He also oversaw UC Berkeley's athletic fund raising in an interim post from July 2003 to January 2004.
"John is regarded as a dynamic leader in the field of university fund raising, and he will provide essential strategic direction to our fund-raising efforts at UC Merced," UC Merced Chancellor Carol Tomlinson-Keasey said in a press release.
Garamendi spent Wednesday unpacking his belongings in his new North Merced home. He moved here with his wife, Colleen Denny- Garamendi, and their two children. Denny-Garamendi is an adjunct faculty member at UC Davis, where she teaches courses in public health.
Garamendi said he grew up in a political household and took on cash-gathering tasks even before he started college.
"Some kids go home and sweep the floor. In my home, you go home and fund raise," he said.
He joined the UC's president's office in 1994, where he worked in community affairs and alumni outreach. He and his wife then spent two years working in Paraguay building water systems as Peace Corps volunteers.
Garamendi returned to the UC in winter 1998, when he worked on UC Berkeley's Campaign for the New Century, a general drive that exceeded its goals and brought in $1.4 billion.
He left Berkeley to work on UC Davis' Mondavi drive in 2000, and then returned to Berkeley in 2003 to work on a variety of fund-raising efforts across several departments. He also spent part of 2003 as a Fulbright scholar in Uruguay, where he conducted research on philanthropy at the University of Montevideo.
Garamendi's father, State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi Sr., serves as chairman of the UC Merced Foundation, which raises money for the new campus and offers support for school leaders. However, the younger Garamendi said he has not been involved with UC Merced fund raising so far.
Garamendi Jr. said he'll spend his summer working on special events to welcome new UC Merced students, and to thank Merced County residents who helped make the campus a reality through decades of campaigning.
"As (the campus) opens its gates, we want to make sure we recognize them, and say this is the fruit of their labor," he said.
