Lee H. Roberts will remove the interim from his title as he becomes UNC Chapel Hill’s 13th chancellor, starting Monday. The UNC Board of Governors made their choice Friday. Roberts had been the interim chancellor since January, replacing Kevin Guskiewicz, who departed for Michigan State.
UNC System President Peter Hans had recommended Roberts to the board following a six-month national search that attracted almost 60 candidates. But many observers expected Roberts to secure the post because of his strong ties to Hans and state political leaders, who have exerted more influence over chancellor selections in recent years.
Roberts served as budget director for the state of North Carolina during Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration from 2014 to 2016. He helped design a successful referendum for the $2 billion Connect NC bond for campus construction and infrastructure across the state.
“When I appointed Lee Roberts as interim chancellor, I said that Carolina would benefit from his calm, steady and focused leadership, and it has,” Hans said in a release. “He has a deep respect for the university’s traditions and excellence, but also a conviction that Carolina has room to grow and improve.”
The search process included seven forums on campus and surveys yielding 3,100 responses. Earlier this week, the UNC Chapel Hill board of trustees endorsed four finalists for the position, forwarding the candidates identified by a search advisory committee made up of faculty, staff, students, alumni, trustees and UNC System leaders.
The three other finalists weren’t identified by the UNC System.
Chapel Hill is among seven of the 16 UNC System schools that have hired new chancellors in the past year or are in the process of doing so. That includes NC State University, where a search committee is seeking a successor to Randy Woodson, the longest-serving chancellor.
“I want to sincerely thank the members of the search advisory committee who lent their time and expertise to this important process,” said Dr. Christy Page, executive dean of the UNC School of Medicine, chief academic officer of UNC Health and faculty member, who chaired the committee. “As a committee, we met with and evaluated a number of outstanding leaders. What stood out in those conversations was that Carolina’s national reputation for teaching and research is incredibly strong.”
Roberts is the co-founder and managing partner of SharpVue Capital, a North Carolina investment firm. He has served on UNC Board of Governors, the State Board of Community Colleges, the State Banking Commission, the Golden LEAF Foundation Board, and the Board of Visitors at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. He taught public budgeting classes at Duke.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Duke University and a law degree from Georgetown University. He grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, the son of former New York Times journalist Steven Roberts and the late Cokie Roberts, a famous ABC News and PBS reporter.
His grandparents served for decades in Congress, representing Louisiana. He and his wife, journalist and author Liza Roberts, live in Raleigh and have three children.
“For 230 years, UNC Chapel Hill has been the most important pillar on which we build a better future for North Carolina and its people,” Roberts said. “I’m deeply honored to be asked to play a role in serving this great university. There’s a lot of exciting work ahead.”
Roberts has launched working groups to explore future initiatives on enrollment growth, artificial intelligence, applied science and capital planning.
His predecessor, Guskiewicz, was chancellor from February 2019 through last December. He succeeded Carol Folt, who led the school from 2013-19 before taking the president’s job at the University of Southern California.