Chancellor Birgeneau announces senior-management transition plans, as Brostrom accepts UCOP position

UC President Mark Yudof today announced the appointment of UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor Administration Nathan Brostrom as Executive Vice President Business Operations at the UC Office of the President. Nathan has been serving as Interim Executive Vice President since September, 2009, while maintaining his role at Berkeley on a part-time basis. His full-time appointment to the Office of the President takes effect Feb. 1, 2010. Please join me in congratulating Nathan.

Nathan has had a major impact on administration at UC Berkeley since joining our campus in March 2006. He has significantly transformed and professionalized our budgeting, financial planning, and capital funding processes through his energy, creativity, and passion for serving the campus and advancing our goals of access and excellence. Nathan has worked intensively to help Berkeley sustain the deep cuts imposed by the State while protecting our academic and research mission and striving to place Berkeley on a sustainable and stable long-term financial footing. Although his outstanding leadership will be greatly missed on campus, his appointment to UCOP will serve the UC system, including Berkeley, extremely well.

I will be launching a search immediately to look for Nathan’s successor. In the interim, Vice Chancellor Frank Yeary will take on a substantial portion of the responsibilities of the Vice Chancellor Administration. He will focus primarily on the financial and strategic side of the portfolio, including financial management and control functions. The areas of finance, human resources, and athletics will report to Vice Chancellor Yeary through Associate Vice Chancellor Budget & Resource Planning Erin Gore, Assistant Vice Chancellor Human Resources Jeannine Raymond, and Intercollegiate Athletics Executive Director Sandy Barbour. They will report directly to Frank.

Associate Vice Chancellor Business and Administrative Services Ron Coley will continue to oversee the business and administrative services that currently report to him and will also maintain interim responsibility for University Health Services, UC Police Department, and Environmental Health & Safety. Ron will report directly to me during this interim period.

Frank and Ron will work closely together. The immediate office of the Vice Chancellor Administration will report to Frank and will continue to support the entire VCA portfolio.

I am very grateful to Frank and Ron for agreeing to this arrangement. This allows full coverage of the portfolio while still ensuring that Frank will continue to have substantial time to focus on Operational Excellence, which he and I are co-leading. Operational Excellence is of vital importance to the campus and we must move ahead vigorously with its implementation. Also, Frank has been working closely with Nathan on evaluating a path to a more sustainable long-term budget for Berkeley and this will enable him to continue to do so. In this regard, I have asked Frank during the next few months while he is overseeing much of the Vice Chancellor Administration portfolio and Operational Excellence, to make a recommendation to me for improving the efficiency and accountability of the financial management organization across campus.

There will be no additional compensation for these interim responsibilities. Vice Chancellor Yeary will continue to receive his annual salary of $200,000 which he donates back to the university through a formal gift agreement to fund a needs-based scholarship program designed to bring especially talented undergraduate students from throughout California to the Berkeley campus.

I am confident that the campus will be very well served in the interim as we move ahead with a search for the Vice Chancellor Administration. I will notify the campus as soon as a search committee has been appointed.

Robert J. Birgeneau