University of Illinois VP to lead University of Wyoming
LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) - University of Wyoming trustees have chosen a University of Illinois System vice president to be the school's next president.
Trustees voted unanimously Wednesday to offer a contract to Edward Seidel, vice president for economic development and innovation for the system of universities in Springfield, Chicago and Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.
Seidel, 62, accepted the offer to lead Wyoming's only public, four-year university, based in Laramie.
'œUW is such an incredibly strong and vibrant institution and it will have an enormous impact on the future of the state and region," Seidel said in a University of Wyoming release.
The three-year contract, which was still being finalized, will include an annual base salary of $365,000, a $60,000 housing allowance and a $50,000 contribution to a deferred compensation plan, according to the university.
Seidel will be the University of Wyoming's fifth president since 2013. He replaces Laurie Nichols, whose contract trustees decided not to renew in 2019 following an investigation into her interactions with employees, a process Nichols has described as unfair.
Nichols is now president of Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota.
Seidel will begin his new job July 1. He immediately faces a challenge in declining state revenue, and university funding, due to weak demand for coal and low prices for natural gas.
'œI see UW as the centerpiece of an '~all-of-state' effort to diversify and grow Wyoming's economy," Seidel said in the release.
Seidel's job in Illinois has included overseeing the university Offices of Technology Management. He also has overseen Illinois Ventures, a technology investment firm.
Previously he was senior vice president for research and innovation for the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow, in a collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He also has held leadership jobs at the National Science Foundation, Louisiana State University and Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Germany.
Two others were finalists: Gregory W. Bowman, dean of West Virginia University College of Law, and Daniel M. White, chancellor of University of Alaska-Fairbanks.