Foundation 2016 Peter interview

Curt Bright Author

04/04/2016 Added

142 Plays

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Interview with NU Foundation staff

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[00:00:00.623]Say your name, your full name,
[00:00:02.020]and spell it for me so I can get the mic set for your voice.
[00:00:04.496]Peter Kotsiopulos.
[00:00:06.087]K-O-T-S-I-O-P-U-L-O-S.
[00:00:12.348]What's your title of your job?
[00:00:14.076]Senior Director of Development.
[00:00:19.276]Great (mumbles).
[00:00:23.644]Pete, would you share your experience
[00:00:26.555]with Wayne and Virginia McKinney with us?
[00:00:29.042]OK, be glad to. Wayne and Virginia McKinney.
[00:00:33.078]To be honest, I've known Wayne McKinney,
[00:00:36.466]I've known the McKinney family since I was pretty little.
[00:00:40.961]He and my dad are contemporaries,
[00:00:44.393]and when I was old enough to reach
[00:00:47.508]the teller window at the bank, Wayne was there.
[00:00:52.282]He just retired at age 90 as chairman of the board
[00:00:56.403]last year of one of the Lawrenson banks, which is,
[00:01:01.032]was Platte Valley Bank in Kearney, until three years ago.
[00:01:06.057]They rebranded it as First National.
[00:01:09.203]So anyhow, we have a long history, but some of the folks
[00:01:14.227]in my portfolio have been long-time friends,
[00:01:16.904]and that's been a little awkward.
[00:01:19.612]I made a list a year ago to say,
[00:01:23.379]"Ok, I've gotta move these on one way or the other."
[00:01:27.724]One, do they have an affinity for UNK
[00:01:31.380]or one of our other campuses?
[00:01:34.553]And two, if they do want to talk about it, then do they
[00:01:40.091]want me to talk with them or one of my colleagues?
[00:01:43.599]So anyhow, he was in business all his life,
[00:01:48.997]even though his degree, his undergraduate degree
[00:01:54.181]was from Nebraska State Teachers College at the time,
[00:01:58.810]even before it was Kearney State,
[00:02:01.211]and then he got his master's from Denver University.
[00:02:05.221]So, I'm thinking business. You know, business college.
[00:02:10.372]He's very instrumental in the career center at the
[00:02:13.700]college of business at Kearney, thinking of all kinds of
[00:02:17.882]programs there. Finance, maybe, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:02:21.680]So, we're coming to crunch time during
[00:02:24.399]the health science education complex reaching our goal.
[00:02:30.288]And so we made a list of folks,
[00:02:32.219]just shots in the dark, really,
[00:02:35.429]and approached Wayne and Virginia,
[00:02:39.588]and I guess I'd be, perhaps, Wayne and Virginia
[00:02:45.520]have incredible capacity, but he's probably
[00:02:48.869]got his first nickel, too.
[00:02:51.754]So, I set out to ask for 50,000,
[00:02:58.153]praying for 25, and I'll be darned if about
[00:03:01.972]two or three days later he called and said,
[00:03:04.373]"I'm coming into the office".
[00:03:06.839]He had the list I gave him, and he said,
[00:03:10.889]"We'd like to do this one, this one and this one".
[00:03:13.884]To myself I said, "That's a hundred".
[00:03:17.663]And, of course, I had to compose myself.
[00:03:24.625]So, since that time, they've become totally immersed
[00:03:29.044]in wanting to know when the ribbon cutting
[00:03:32.095]was and any activities there.
[00:03:37.885]It's just been a fun ride.
[00:03:41.358]Hopefully that opens some more doors.
[00:03:45.501]It's funny, they made a multi-year pledge,
[00:03:47.623]and he's 90, so they're optimistic.
[00:03:54.527]So, I'm hopeful that we crack the door.
[00:03:59.017]That's kind of a capsule.
[00:04:01.725]Do you have an idea of what the
[00:04:03.656]tipping point for them was?
[00:04:05.939]Was it just the right ask at the right time,
[00:04:08.712]or your relationship with them, or a lot of everything?
[00:04:12.754]Well, ok. Good question. A couple of things come to mind.
[00:04:16.850]One is they enjoy the campus and the activities.
[00:04:21.800]I mean, even at their age and their
[00:04:24.572]mobility challenges, they're at activities.
[00:04:32.636]But I think part of the intrigue was, to be honest,
[00:04:35.346]was, I think, the Scott match from Omaha of securing
[00:04:40.434]some of the, I'll just say,
[00:04:43.037]metro wealth investing in greater Nebraska.
[00:04:49.533]And I think that was attractive to say,
[00:04:51.379]"Well, this is great. We'll help out with that."
[00:04:56.424]And then the student thing, because what they
[00:04:58.888]ended up naming were the student reception,
[00:05:03.391]the student lounge,
[00:05:07.503]and kind of a pod of three items
[00:05:11.619]that were all student-related.
[00:05:14.164]So, I think those two things kind of played into it.
[00:05:19.710]In general, what do those kind of gifts and relationships,
[00:05:25.102]how do they make you feel?
[00:05:27.239]Well, you know, in my previous life,
[00:05:34.053]in years of not only in the business world,
[00:05:38.391]but also in the not for profit and volunteer arena,
[00:05:42.828]you're used to hearing, "No", and we have
[00:05:45.068]to accept that and not take it personal.
[00:05:49.932]So when you do hear a, "Yes", or a, "Maybe",
[00:05:52.673]or, "Let's talk some more", that's great.
[00:05:56.713]Again, I understand that not everybody wants
[00:05:59.915]to invest in the University of Nebraska,
[00:06:02.952]but we gotta find out and ask the question.
[00:06:09.866]Again, I think in this case,
[00:06:14.197]it opened a door.
[00:06:16.283]You see them.
[00:06:17.481]They always want to talk about it, you know, out in public.
[00:06:22.371]It's been a positive experience.
[00:06:25.450]Great.

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Foundation 2016 Peter interview

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