Minnesota State announced the names of three finalists under consideration to become the next chancellor.
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Ricardo Azziz, Neal Cohen and Van Ton-Quinlivan will visit the system office Feb. 27-28 for interviews with members of the Board of Trustees, the college and university presidents, and members of the chancellor’s cabinet. Each candidate will also participate in an open forum for employees and students Feb. 28.
The Board-led finalist forum will be open to Minnesota State employees and students 9:15 a.m.-1:45 p.m. in person at 30 Seventh St. E., Suite 350, St. Paul in Conference Rooms 3304/06 or via Skype Broadcast. Each candidate will give a short presentation followed by a question and answer period.
- Azziz will present from 9:15-10:30 a.m.
- Ton-Quinlivan will present from 10:45 a.m.-noon
- Cohen will present from 12:30-1:45 p.m.
Minnesota State is collecting feedback through the Chancellor’s Open Forum or send the survey form by email to [email protected].
The chancellor is the chief executive officer of the Minnesota State system and has full executive responsibility for higher education leadership and effective management and operation of the system. The chancellor works in close collaboration with the system’s Leadership Council comprised of the chancellor’s cabinet and the presidents of the colleges and universities.
Ricardo Azziz
Azziz has served the State University of New York (SUNY) System Administration since 2016 as chief officer, academic health and hospital affairs. He also serves as a senior fellow at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education Pullias Center for Higher Education, a position he has held since 2015.
Previously, he was the founding president of Georgia Regents University (now Augusta University) from 2012 to 2015; president of Georgia Health Sciences University from 2010 to 2012; and founding chief executive officer of the Georgia Regents Health System from 2010 to 2015.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, two master’s degrees from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and an MD from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine.
Neal Cohen
Cohen served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of ATK (NYSE: ATK) from 2012 to 2015.
Previously, he was president and chief operating officer for Laureate Education from 2008 to 2011.
He served Northwest Airlines between 1991 and 2008 in several capacities, including executive vice president of strategy and international; chief executive officer of regional operations; and executive vice president and chief financial officer.
He also served US Airways as executive vice president and chief financial officer from 2002 to 2004.
He holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s from the University of Chicago.
Van Ton-Quinlivan
Ton-Quinlivan serves as executive vice chancellor of workforce and digital futures for the 114 California Community Colleges after joining the system in 2011 as vice chancellor of workforce and economic development.
From 2006 to 2011, she served at Pacific Gas & Electric as director of workforce and economic development and special assistant to the chairman and CEO. Prior to that, she held a variety of management roles across public, private, and entrepreneurial enterprises, and taught at DeAnza College (CA).
She holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and dual master’s degrees from Stanford University.
The chancellor search has been led by a search advisory committee comprised of students, faculty, staff, and community leaders and chaired by Scott Peterson, executive vice president and chief human resources officer of the Schwan’s Company.
The chancellor’s responsibilities include:
- Implementing board policy
- Providing for academic leadership including making recommendations to the board for college and university presidents and cabinet members
- Recommending operating and capital budgets
- Recommending allocation of resources
- Systemwide planning
- Oversight of collective bargaining
- Coordinating enterprise-wide information systems
- Management of personnel resources
- Annual evaluation of the college and university presidents.
