Jon Salvani
“This is an exciting opportunity to help create a focused development program from the ground up,” says Salvani. “I believe our alumni base is anxious to support the college, and I look forward to being the primary point of contact to assist those individuals.”
Salvani joins NIU CEET as gift officer
Contact: Joe King
NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-4299
DeKalb, IL – The Northern Illinois University Foundation recently announced that Jon Salvani has been appointed senior gift and estate planning officer for the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology.
“This is an exciting opportunity to help create a focused development program from the ground up,” says Salvani. “I believe our alumni base is anxious to support the college, and I look forward to being the primary point of contact to assist those individuals.”
When he joined the NIU Foundation three years ago it was a bit of a homecoming for Salvani, who graduated from NIU in 1996 with a degree in corporate communications.
Prior to returning to NIU, Salvani worked at the Northbrook headquarters of Allstate Insurance where his duties included managing information technology projects and consulting on sales and marketing. He also served as head of the company’s NIU recruiting team, regularly returning to campus to work with students interested in internship and employment opportunities with Allstate.
That job was a natural for Salvani who had always felt a deep connection with his alma mater. So when an opportunity arose to join the NIU Foundation as a gift officer, he jumped at it.
“I always wanted to return to NIU, and the Foundation was an excellent fit for me. It put me in a role where I could enrich the lives of students through scholarships and other support, and I loved that idea,” he says.
Initially, CEET was just one of several colleges on campus that Salvani worked with, but it became obvious in recent months that interest in giving to the engineering school (which was created just over 20 years ago) was expanding quickly and that a full-time gift officer was in order. Salvani was delighted to move into that role.
“Deans and department chairs in the college have done a wonderful job of creating an extensive network of companies who have supported us over the years. I hope to work with those businesses to formalize some of those relationships and demonstrate to them how they can be mutually beneficial.”
Salvani also looks forward to helping the leadership of the college cultivate the strong relationships that they have built with industry throughout the region. “I hope my efforts can help forge partnerships that not only support the college financially, but also ensure that the local manufacturing community is getting the highly trained, quality engineers it needs,” he says.
“We are excited to have Jon join us here in the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology,” said Dean Promod Vohra. “We hear from alumni and corporate partners nearly every day who are excited about supporting the college, and I look forward to having a person of Jon’s caliber to coordinate those efforts.”
Salvani lives in DeKalb with his wife, Emily (who serves as alumni coordinator for CEET) and their 8-year-old son, Carter.
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