Charlie Phlegar, who led Virginia Tech’s Advancement Division to global recognition for excellence in fundraising, alumni engagement, communications, and marketing, will retire this year, effective Aug. 31. Under his near-decade of leadership, Advancement more than doubled the percentage of undergraduate alumni who make gifts — and the value of new gifts and commitments made each fiscal year.

Advancement’s many other accomplishments since Phlegar arrived in July 2015 include securing record gifts on multiple occasions, coordinating the university’s 150th anniversary, relaunching the university’s brand, aligning and integrating university-level volunteer boards, establishing LINK: Center for Advancing Partnerships, and launching Boundless Impact, a campaign to raise $1.872 billion and engage 120,000 alumni in meaningful ways. Phlegar and his division are deeply involved in the university’s top strategic initiatives, such as the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus, Virginia Tech Advantage, and Virginia Tech Global Distinction.

Phlegar is a Blacksburg native who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Virginia Tech and began his career as assistant director of his alma mater’s alumni association. His father led Virginia Tech admissions during a time of profound growth and diversification of the university, starting in the late 1960s and continuing through the 1980s.

Phlegar went on to work in roles of increasing responsibility at East Carolina University, the University of South Carolina, Johns Hopkins University, and Cornell University before returning to Virginia Tech as the university’s first vice president for advancement with fundraising, alumni engagement, communications, and marketing all within his division. He was promoted to senior vice president for advancement in 2023.

“We had high expectations for Charlie with his experience and outstanding record of success and because he’s a Hokie who understands the university’s unique character and great potential,” Virginia Tech President Tim Sands said. “Over the past decade, Charlie has provided transformative leadership that left us stronger and well-prepared to advance our mission in new and impactful ways. I am grateful that he will stay on for a few months to ensure a smooth transition and wish him the very best in his well-deserved retirement.”

The university will conduct a national search to head its Advancement Division. Virginia Tech raised $100.4 million in new gifts and commitments during Phlegar’s first fiscal year on the job and nearly $226.1 million last year. The three-year average of new gifts and commitments is $239.8 million, an all-time high. Meanwhile, the university has gone from trailing many of its peers in undergraduate alumni giving percentage to being a national leader in the category.

Over more than four decades working in higher education, Phlegar made a profound impact on multiple institutions that employed him. He also influenced the advancement profession as a whole through leadership within the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, known as CASE. While serving on high-level boards for CASE, Phlegar helped develop standard, global metrics for reporting advancement work, such as fundraising and alumni engagement, which went into effect in 2021.

During his time as vice president for alumni affairs and development at Cornell, Phlegar was instrumental in launching a $6 billion fundraising campaign. He was a member of the Cornell Tech Steering Committee that secured the winning bid to build a new campus on New York City’s Roosevelt Island. He also is widely credited with creating the CASE 50 group that honors the industry’s top performing advancement operations and brings together their leaders to discuss best practices. In 2023, Virginia Tech became a CASE 50 member, which Phlegar called “one of the most satisfying achievements of my career.”

CASE’s president and CEO, Sue Cunningham, described Phlegar as understated and modest but said, “The amount of change, impact, and transformation he has led is astounding.”

She added, “Charlie is an exemplar of an advancement professional who has worked hand-in-hand with academic colleagues to provide substantial leadership and innovation for the university. He is an inspiration to the profession.”

Alumnus David Calhoun knew Phlegar as a college roommate and fellow member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and reconnected with him not long after Phlegar returned to lead the Advancement Division. Calhoun had been deeply involved as a volunteer leader and philanthropist, including as co-chair of Campaign for Virginia Tech: Invent the Future, which concluded 2011. Working with Phlegar and other advancement leaders, as well as senior academic leaders, Calhoun has made several innovative initiatives possible through personal and corporate philanthropy in recent years.

When it comes to synchronizing a philanthropist’s vision with institutional priorities, “he’s brilliant at that,” Calhoun said of Phlegar. “I’ve seen it at the personal level with the Honors College and at the corporate level with Boeing’s involvement. Job one for Charlie is not just to solicit you for Tech’s interests but to listen to what you want to accomplish and then bring together the skills and talent at the school that he believes can do it. I’ve loved working with him and his team. Everybody is in synch all the time.”

Phlegar’s tenure has seen consistent efforts to improve the way the Advancement Division works. These have included introducing a Giving Day that has proven widely popular among alumni, reviving the Senior Class Gift Campaign, and creating several new designations for athletics donors. One recent project has been to amplify the Virginia Tech Alumni Association Board’s role in collaborating with university leaders to advance top priorities.

“Charlie is one of the most transformational leaders I’ve had the pleasure of working with,” said Bridget Ryan Berman, vice president of the board. “He’s a Hokie through and through. He understands Virginia Tech’s rich history, and because of his significant experiences with other great institutions, he recognized the potential of the university and has been deeply committed to helping us achieve greatness. With the support of President Sands, Charlie and his team set a vision for advancement and have built it in a way that will have a lasting effect. Together, they’ve created a culture of philanthropy, which has given us financial success and raised the university's profile, the reputation of its alumni, and the spirit and commitment of the entire Virginia Tech community.”

Phlegar said alumni, corporations, foundations and other supporters are crucial partners whose involvement should be embraced.

“Higher education needs involvement from alumni and corporate America to help build and protect universities,” Phlegar said. “With their involvement, higher-education will continue to have the well-deserved support it has enjoyed for generations. It takes strong and courageous leadership to fully embrace alumni volunteers and industry partners and let them in under the tent. I like the analogy, ‘noses in, fingers out’ as we increasingly engage them. Their ideas can be very impactful, and will definitely make us better.”

Phlegar said he looks back on his career with a fair amount of pride and a great deal of gratitude.

“As I get to the end of my career, I want to acknowledge that advancement work takes a lot,” Phlegar said. “Long days. Weekends. Travel. I’m grateful to my family, to my advancement colleagues and their families, and to our university leaders and their families. Overall, it’s been such fun for me to see individuals who have made gifts witness the tremendous impact they have on the university.”

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