Erskine Bowles, who has been an active participant in the state’s high-tech industry through such groups as Dogwood Equity and the Golden Leaf Foundation, will be the new president of the University of North Carolina System.
Bowles was named to the post in a unanimous vote on Monday by the Board of Governors for the 16-campus system.
Bowles, an investment banker from Charlotte, will assume the post on Jan. 1. He will replace Molly Corbett Broad, who announced in March that she was retiring. Broad held the president’s post for eight years.
Bowles, 60, served as chief of staff for former President Bill Clinton before returning to private business in North Carolina.
“There is no other job in our state quite like the presidency of the University of North Carolina. It requires a rare blend of experience, skills, character, and passion. We searched nationwide for a leader who possessed all four, and no one embodied that combination more fully than Erskine Bowles,” said J. Bradley Wilson, chairman of the governors who led the search committee.
“Without question, UNC’s president must have an intimate understanding of the teaching, research, and outreach that define the University’s three-part mission. But equally important, the president must understand how to leverage resources and motivate supporters to carry out that mission,” he added in a statement.
Bowles is a native of Greensboro and earned a degree in business from UNC Chapel Hill in 1967.
For a bio of Bowles, see: intranet.northcarolina.edu/docs/pa/EK/Pres%20Search/10.3.05_erskine_bowles_bio_narrative-1.pdf
