William Jenkins named Caltech vice president for business and finance

PASADENA- President David Baltimore has announced that William A. Jenkins, the vice chancellor for administration at Vanderbilt University, has been appointed vice president for business and finance at the California Institute of Technology, effective in mid-July.

"Bill Jenkins has done an outstanding job at one of the top academic institutions in the country," said Baltimore, "and we feel fortunate that he has agreed to move to Pasadena to take up this new post. His dedication to the pursuit of excellence, his values-based leadership and his ability to create and implement positive change all bode well for the future of Caltech's critical business and finance operations. I look forward with great anticipation to his arrival at Caltech."

"It is an honor to be selected vice president for business and finance and to become part of the Caltech community," says Jenkins. "Caltech's excellence is prominent and pervasive. I look forward to serving what is truly one of the world's premier research universities."

Jenkins has been vice chancellor at Vanderbilt since 1984 and has held an adjunct professorship of management in the Owen Graduate School of Management since 1988. As a general officer of the university, he is directly responsible for activities encompassing finance, business, technology, human resources, and facilities; he has also been involved in fundraising, academics, student life, athletics, and legal, community, and public relations. In 1990 he created the Vanderbilt University Leadership Development Forum, which provides leadership training for academic and administrative staff throughout the university.

He earned his master's and PhD degrees from Purdue University, and his bachelor's degree from Indiana State University.

Prior to joining Vanderbilt, he spent seven years at North Carolina State University as assistant and then associate vice chancellor for finance and business, and prior to that was business manager and assistant to the vice president for campus affairs at Cornell University.

Coauthor of the book The Eagle and the Monk: Seven Principles of Successful Change, Jenkins is a recognized speaker, consultant, and authority on the subject of leadership and values. He is also coauthor of Managing the Hidden Organization and is author or coauthor of numerous articles in popular, higher-education, and business publications. Honored for his activities in the areas of race relations and the advancement of women, Jenkins is also a Purdue University Distinguished Alumnus.

Jenkins and his wife, Mary Ann, have one son, Jeff.