Kathy Schmidlkofer has been president and CEO of the University of Minnesota Foundation since March 2014. The Foundation is dedicated to raising and managing private gifts from individuals and organizations to build greatness at the University of Minnesota. Under Schmidlkofer’s leadership, the Foundation has achieved record levels of fundraising as part of Driven, the University’s $4 billion system-wide campaign. The Foundation also actively manages the $2.5 billion dollar philanthropic endowment as well as manages an extensive student housing and commercial property portfolio with master planning underway to develop a commercial and innovation district to serve the needs of the University.

Before joining the Foundation, Schmidlkofer was executive vice president and a founding leader of GREATER MSP, a public private partnership dedicated to growing the economy of the Minneapolis-St. Paul region. Prior to that, she held a variety of senior finance roles over a 25-year career at General Mills.

Schmidlkofer earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in business from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later completed her Master of Business Administration degree at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.

Schmidlkofer serves on the board of the Saint Paul and Minneapolis Community Foundations, the University of Minnesota Alumni Association, and is a member of the Minnesota Women’s Economic Roundtable.