Berkeleyan
Nathan Brostrom selected to fill key vice-chancellorial slot
Specialist in public finance is Birgeneau's choice to replace the departed Horace Mitchell and James Hyatt in expanded role
| 12 January 2006
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 Nathan Brostrom(Peg Skorpinski photo) |
Brostrom is expected to begin his new position on March 1, 2006, pending approval by the regents. He will manage the campus's annual operating budget of more than $1.3 billion. Further, he will be responsible for a division that is the largest provider of services to campus staff and a significant provider of services to Berkeley students.
Currently a managing director and co-head of the Western Region Public Finance group at J.P. Morgan Securities, Brostrom is a highly regarded public-finance banker. He has extensive experience in public bond transactions, including serving as lead banker for the state of California on the $11.3-billion energy-purchase bond program that emanated from the 2001 California energy crisis.
Since 1996, when he joined the securities firm, he has been involved with more than $70 billion in bond issues on behalf of government and not-for-profit corporations, including structuring nearly $4.3 billion in bonds for UC's campuses.
"In Nathan Brostrom we have a recognized expert in public finance, a creative and enthusiastic manager, and a leader who cares deeply about the public mission of this great university, including most especially our historic commitment to academic excellence and social justice," says Birgeneau. "I am delighted that he has accepted our offer and look forward to working with Nathan in addressing the considerable financial and administrative challenges before us."
Brostrom, 41, will fill a new vice-chancellor position that combines the duties of two previous vice chancellors, one in business and administrative services (succeeding Horace Mitchell, who left his position in July 2004), and one in budget and finance (succeeding James Hyatt, who also left the campus in mid-2004).
"I am honored and delighted to have been offered this opportunity," says Brostrom. "I have long been drawn toward Cal because of its recognized standards of excellence, and also because of the important public goals that it not only espouses but practices." He continues: "In the coming years, the university must balance a difficult triad of challenges - maintaining excellence in education and in research while traditional avenues of financial support decline, yet still remaining welcoming and accessible to all Californians."
As vice chancellor-administration Brostrom will be responsible for advising the chancellor and the executive vice chancellor and provost on all budget and resource-management, health and human services, and fiscal-planning matters, both operational and capital. One of his first duties will be developing the 2006-07 fiscal-year budget.
The divisions he will oversee comprise 1,100 employees and include areas of campus operations ranging from human resources and health services to intercollegiate athletics, public safety to budget and finance.
"One of my goals will be to help foster an environment in which every person who works at UC Berkeley can feel a part of this awesome and noble mission," he says, adding that one of his first priorities will be to put a management team in place that supports the divisions' employees and the administration of the campus.
Brostrom holds a master's degree in public and international affairs from Princeton University and a B.A. from Stanford University. A resident of Berkeley, he is married to Caitlin Lempres Brostrom, a Berkeley graduate, and has lectured in the architecture department. His first wife, Lisa Capps, who died in 2000, was a professor of clinical psychology at Berkeley. The Brostroms are the parents of six children.