Gee at a glance
- E. Gordon Gee
- Age: 63
- Hometown: Vernal, Utah
- Experience: Led five universities: Vanderbilt, 2000-present; Brown, 1998-2000; Ohio State, 1990-97; University of Colorado, 1985-90; West Virginia, 1981-85
E. Gordon Gee will be returning to Ohio State University as its next president.
Gee confirmed that he would be leaving Vanderbilt University in a letter to that school's community today.
“I am following my heart and returning to a place that I consider my home,” Gee said in the letter. “My decision is that simple and that complex.”
He will leave Vanderbilt Aug. 1.
The Ohio State board is expected to vote on its choice on Thursday.
Gee, 63, has been chancellor of Vanderbilt since 2000 and was Ohio State's president from 1990 through ‘97.
Ohio State's board of trustees have been trying to lure him back for months.
Gee released a statement in late June saying that he planned to stay at Vanderbilt for “a long time to come” and that he was not a candidate for Ohio State's presidency. But he added that OSU always would be “a special place to me.”
Sources said OSU trustees, however, were continuing to negotiate with him and had offered him a $1 million compensation package. His compensation at Vanderbilt is more than $1.2 million.
Gee will follow Karen A. Holbrook, who retired as OSU president June 30. She had announced her plans to leave a year ago.
Vanderbilt board chairman Martha R. Ingram today said she wishes Gee well in his new endeavors.
A 24-member search committee has been looking for a new president since September, aided by the national search firm Heidrick & Struggles.
At Vanderbilt, a private university in Nashville, Tenn., Gee got national attention when he disbanded the athletic department, did away with the athletics-director job and gave the office of Student Life and University Affairs control over sports. Naysayers predicted Vanderbilt's teams would fail, but they have flourished.
In his seven years at Vanderbilt, Gee has lifted the school's academic standing and raised more than $1 billion.
During his seven years at OSU, the university started some of its largest building projects, including the $93 million Schottenstein Center, $92 million Fisher College of Business and an $80 million renovation of Ohio Stadium. Gee also trimmed enrollment from 50,000 to 48,000, worked to attract and keep better students, and pushed to increase state funding for colleges.
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