Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov has been chosen to succeed Stephen J. Friedman as president of Pace University.
The 56-year-old Krislov takes over the post on Aug. 1. Friedman, 78, announced a year ago that he would not request reappointment after the conclusion of his current term on June 30. He served 10 years as president.
In announcing the choice on Tuesday morning, Mark M. Besca, chairman of the board of trustees, said Krislov “is the ideal person to lead Pace into a new era of growth and build on the renewal and revitalization that Pace has experienced under Steve Friedman. Marvin has demonstrated throughout his career the strong, effective, enlightened, and passionate leadership to propel Pace to a new level of impact and stature.”
Krislov, who has been president of the Ohio school since 2007, said, “I am honored to be chosen to lead Pace University during this exciting period of growth and revitalization as the University advances its position as one of the nation”™s foremost institutions in fostering the leaders of tomorrow. Pace”™s commitment to access and pathways to success for students inspires me.”
In addition to serving as president of Oberlin, Krislov taught advanced courses every semester on aspects of law and public policy. In November 2009, he was appointed to the advisory board of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
During his leadership, Oberlin “became more inclusive, strengthened its academic programs, improved student outcomes, created new career opportunities for faculty and staff, expanded fundraising and alumni participation and improved its campus facilities” according to a press release.
Krislov also led a fundraising campaign that exceeded its $250 million target by $68 million and achieved it 18 months ahead of schedule.
The selection process for Friedman”™s successor began last March and was led by a 15-member search committee representing trustees, faculty, administrators, alumni, benefactors, and students.
Prior to Oberlin, Krislov was at the University of Michigan, where he had served as vice president and general counsel since 1998. He served in the U.S. Department of Labor as acting solicitor from 1997-98 and for two years before that as deputy solicitor of national operations. He took the position in the department after serving as associate counsel in the Office of Counsel to the President.
Friedman joined Pace as the dean of its law school in White Plains at the age of 66. He had been a senior partner and co-chairman of the corporate department of Debevoise & Plimpton. He had served as commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, deputy assistant secretary for capital markets policy at the U.S. Treasury Department, executive vice president and general counsel of the Equitable Companies Inc. and the E.F. Hutton Group Inc. and as law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr.
In an interview last year last year at his 18th-floor office at One Pace Plaza in Lower Manhattan, Friedman said he “became a born-again academic” when he took on the role as dean. “It was interesting because I didn”™t really think of myself as ”˜an education person,”™” he told the Business Journal”™s sister publication, WAG magazine.
“I basically became president overnight in the summer of 2007 and then I found myself on an even steeper learning curve.”
With campuses in New York City and Westchester County, Pace enrolls nearly 13,000 students in bachelor”™s, master”™s and doctoral programs.
