Berkeleyan
Two recently named to vice-chancellorial posts
Harry Le Grande to head student affairs permanently; Yeary will help guide campus planning and finances
| 17 July 2008
Chancellor Robert Birgeneau has announced the appointment of two new vice chancellors — one a longtime campus employee who immediately stepped into his new permanent role, the other a distinguished financier who begins work here in August, and will dedicate his salary to scholarships for needy students.
Harry Le Grande has been confirmed by the UC regents as Berkeley’s vice chancellor for student affairs, capping a career devoted to serving students, including 27 years at this campus. He has served in the vice chancellor’s role on an interim basis since January 2007.
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 Harry Le Grande (Keith Stevenson photo) |
The portfolio of the vice chancellor for student affairs encompasses undergraduate admissions, the registrar’s office, financial aid, housing, dining, fundraising for scholarships, childcare services, campus life and leadership, the dean of students’ office, and career services. In all, Le Grande will oversee a program with an annual operating budget of $165 million, 1,300 career positions, and 1,500 student employees.
Le Grande, 54, says that among his major immediate challenges will be implementing a new campus student-information system, re-envisioning the student experience by leading the transformation of Lower Sproul Plaza, and greatly expanding fundraising for undergraduate financial aid.
Le Grande came to Berkeley in 1981 as a senior student-affairs officer, rising through successively more responsible positions. Prior to serving as interim vice chancellor, he served as associate vice chancellor of student affairs for residential and student-service programs.
Developing stable, reliable funding
Birgeneau also named Berkeley alumnus Frank Yeary, the former global head of mergers and acquisitions for Citigroup, to a new vice-chancellorial post. He will advise the chancellor, the executive vice chancellor and provost, and their senior staff on strategic planning and financial issues important to the campus.
Yeary, who will report directly to Birgeneau, will guide major strategic initiatives, specifically spearheading the development of a long-range financial plan to help the campus develop and manage a more stable, reliable funding strategy. He will also provide international financial expertise in global research and education partnerships, and he may teach classes at the Haas School of Business.
“The critical purpose for bringing Frank Yeary into this position is to strengthen our financial position through strategies that blend public and private support and that take advantage of opportunities, partnerships and alliances,” said Birgeneau in announcing the appointment. “State funding can be volatile, as this year has dramatized. It is vital that we have the capacity to navigate through such wild swings in our funding base. Frank brings the kind of high-level expertise that will help us guarantee we can serve the people of California at the level they deserve.”
 Frank Yeary |
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Yeary, 44, will begin work at Berkeley in mid-August. He returns to his alma mater, where he received his B.A. in economics and history in 1985. A member of the UC Berkeley Foundation Board of Trustees since 2001, he has offered to donate, through a formal gift agreement, his annual salary to fund a needs-based scholarship program designed to bring especially talented undergraduate students from throughout California to the Berkeley campus.
Says Yeary, “I see clearly both the challenges and the opportunities that Berkeley is facing today as it works to build upon the level of excellence that its name has come to represent, and I feel I can help a great deal in this critical strategic effort. I am honored to have been asked to transfer many of the skills and relationships I have developed as an investment banker to my new role in public education.”
As vice chancellor, Yeary will work closely with Vice Chancellor for Administration Nathan Brostrom in developing long-range financial plans and creative financial strategies to support the campus’s capital-plan and infrastructure needs, and in working to increase Berkeley’s interactions with countries around the world. He will also work in close partnership with the highest levels of campus leadership on other major initiatives, including supporting the UC Berkeley Foundation’s management of the campus’s endowment.
Yeary is a fourth-generation California native who grew up in the Pasadena area. After graduating from Berkeley, he moved to New York City and started his investment-banking career. He originally joined the Citigroup predecessor company, Salomon Brothers Inc., in 1990 and worked prior to that at Lehman Brothers.
Both Le Grande and Yeary, in addition to their annual base salaries ($215,000 for Le Grande, $200,000 for Yeary), will receive a standard benefits package and are eligible to receive the University of California’s Senior Management Supplemental Benefit Program. Le Grande’s appointment is open-ended; Yeary’s is for three years, renewable on an annual basis by mutual agreement. Additional details about compensation for both administrators are available at the UC regents’ salaries-and-compensation website.