Jen Badie
Greg Bowden, the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s chief philanthropy officer and vice president since December, says his office is “very much my space.”
A few months into the job, the Baltimore-area native has decorated his desk with a variety of mementos including numerous pictures he has taken over the years.
Those pictures include “a super cute picture I took of my wife in 1995 in Chicago when we first started dating,” he said, adding that his family is his greatest gift.
“I have three amazing children and a wife who loves me. Can’t do much better than that,” he said.
Other items on Bowden’s desk that have extra meaning to him include a brass bowl in an intricate wooden stand that he uses to hold candy.
“My father bought it off a street vendor in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1967,” Bowden said.
He also displays a small plastic dinosaur with a funny — but fake — quote attributed to former New York Mets outfielder Mookie Wilson that appeared in the Village Voice in 1986: “When I’m in a slump, I comfort myself by saying if I believe in dinosaurs, then somewhere, they must be believing in me. And if they believe in me, then I can believe in me. Then I bust out.” Bowden, a lifelong Baltimore Orioles fan, gave the dinosaur and quote to participants at a team retreat in a previous job.
He has a Transformer he displays on his desk that he also did for a team retreat in which he talked about transforming his team, as well as a Lego he built, a Hello Kitty mobile, and Speed Racer.
