Gregory Leet

Senior Consultant

Email: [email protected]

Gregory R. Leet, M.N.P.S. joins Aspen Leadership Group with more than 30 years of advancement experience in public and private higher education, and research institutions. Most recently, he served as vice president for advancement at The Jackson Laboratory where he led development, strategic communications and trustee relations.

Prior to joining JAX, Leet was vice chancellor for university advancement at University of California, Irvine (UCI) leading all advancement programs, including the UCI Medical Center and Chao Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the university’s community and government relations programs. Under his leadership, UCI became the youngest university to complete a $1 billion fundraising campaign. He also secured UCI's then largest gift ever of $40 million to establish the Sue and Bill Gross School of Nursing.

Leet also held leadership positions at the Arizona State University (ASU) Foundation, where he managed the development staff for a then-planned $1.3 billion campaign. He also collaborated on fundraising projects such as the ASU Biodesign Institute and helped with ASU’s rebranding initiative and implementation of an innovative prospect management program, which garnered national awards from the Council for Advancement & Support of Education (CASE). Prior to ASU, he held several frontline major gift officer and management positions at Creighton University, a private research university. While directing Creighton’s inaugural principal gifts program, the university secured its largest ever gift of $50 million. Leet’s passion for fundraising began as an undergraduate student, when he helped his alma mater’s annual giving program establish its first phonathon, using all volunteer student callers.

Leet received his bachelor’s degree in agricultural journalism from Kansas State University and his master’s degree in nonprofit management at Arizona State University. He has served on the board of directors for the Orange County (CA) Business Council and one*n*ten, a nonprofit serving homeless LGBTQ+ youth in Phoenix, and the board of overseers for the Bushnell Performing Arts Center in Hartford, CT. Leet resides in Phoenix, Arizona with his husband, a woodwinds professor in the School of Music, Dance and Theater at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.