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Suzanne Hilser-Wiles
President
A genuine leader is not a seeker of consensus, but a molder of consensus. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Biography
Suzanne Hilser-Wiles, President, partners with GG+A clients around the globe to help them elevate their fundraising by offering more than 25 years of experience in advancement, program building, and campaign planning and implementation. Throughout her career, she has helped design, rebuild, and reimagine programs by applying her experience with a wide range of advancement programs and institutions. She has worked closely with her clients through their individual challenges and opportunities, including ambitious campaigns, changes in leadership, crises, and restructuring. She has focused her work in the higher education, healthcare, independent schools, and artistic and cultural sectors.
Suzanne joined GG+A in 2011 and was appointed to the firm’s executive committee in 2013. In 2016, she became the firm’s first woman president in its nearly 60-year history. In addition to her other responsibilities, she leads the firm’s Europe and U.K. practice.
Her extensive previous professional experience includes fundraising, communications, and marketing development, specifically admissions marketing, alumni relations, and press office management. She has developed and implemented individual major giving programs and designed training and support programs to engage executives, deans, and trustees in fundraising.
Suzanne has partnered with GG+A clients across all of the firm’s sectors, providing strategic counsel to Development teams and institutional leadership. This vast array of clients includes the Art Institute of Chicago; Charlotte Country Day School; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Drexel University; Fuller Theological Seminary; IESE Business School; The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Tate.
Prior to joining the firm, Suzanne served as Vice-Chancellor for Advancement at University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), where she also served on an executive team advising the university’s chancellor on all major policy decisions and as the primary staff member for the Advancement Committee of the Board of Trustees. Suzanne joined UNCSA from CancerCare, a national healthcare nonprofit based in New York City, where she served as Director of External Affairs, overseeing the evaluation and redesign of four major programs: direct mail, gift processing, major gifts, and sponsorship.
Before joining CancerCare, Suzanne served as Senior Development Officer for Corporate Annual Programs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she oversaw the Museum’s annual corporate fundraising program and staffed the Museum’s business committee. Previously, Suzanne served as Associate Director of Individual and Leadership Giving at the Museum of Modern Art. Suzanne began her career in institutional advancement with Pets are Wonderful Support in San Francisco, where she served as Director of Development.
Suzanne received her Bachelor of Arts degree in art history from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a Master of Arts degree in arts administration from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.