BURLINGTON — David Daigle, the chair of the University of Vermont board of trustees, has announced he will be leaving the board next month.
Daigle, a UVM alum who works as a portfolio manager at New York investment group the Capital Group, has been the chair of the board for four years and a member of the board for 10.
Ron Lumbra, the board’s current vice chair, was nominated to replace Daigle by the board’s Committee on Board Governance at that committee’s Monday meeting.
Lumbra, another UVM alum, is a managing partner of the Center of Excellence at Heidrick & Struggles, an executive search firm in New York City.
The board has faced scrutiny from state legislators concerned about its lack of gender and racial diversity. Only six of the 23 members of the board are women, and even fewer are people of color.
Lumbra, who is African American, told VTDigger in November that he opposed a bill that would establish diversity quotas on the board, saying he believed that would create tokenism of diverse candidates. Instead, Lumbra said the board is focusing on its outreach to diverse candidates.
The board nominated Cynthia Barnhart, the chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to be its new vice chair. State Rep. Curt McCormack, D-Burlington, was nominated to be the board’s secretary.
Barnhart and McCormack’s nominations will be considered at the board’s Jan. 31 meeting. The board will hold a special meeting March 2 to elect a new chair, UVM spokesman Enrique Corredera said.
Frank Cioffi, the chair of the board’s governance committee, said that Daigle had been an “incredible” chair.
“He’s kind of been the architect of a lot of the financial management of the university throughout his 10 years on the university board, and we’re really appreciative of everything he’s done,” he said.
Cioffi said as vice chair, Lumbra had been a partner with Daigle and was a natural prospect to replace Daigle. Lumbra is a Vermont native, Cioffi said, and has deep connections to the university and deep management experience.
“He brings a lot of really key managerial expertise, and we thought he would be a natural fit,” Cioffi said.
Daigle wrote in an email to the university community Thursday that he would be retiring from the board at the end of February, a plan that he had previously shared with the board.
“At this juncture, it is my belief that the time is right for a new chair to take the helm of the UVM Board,” Daigle wrote. “This step will facilitate an orderly evolution to our next generation of Board leadership and position UVM to remain on a successful trajectory.”
Daigle led the board during a turbulent time for the state’s largest university.
In spring 2018, students protested against racism on campus after white supremicist signs were posted around campus. Student protesters were unsatisfied with then-President Tom Sullivan’s response to their concerns and called for his resignation.
Sullivan announced in August 2018 that he would step down. Daigle was the co-chair of the presidential search committee that selected Suresh Garimella as the university’s next president. Garimella came from Purdue University where he served as the executive vice president for research and partnerships.
As Garimella visited the UVM campus just before being hired as president, students and faculty protested against cutbacks in the College of Arts and Sciences.
The university has had fundraising successes in recent years and concluded a $581 million fundraising campaign that exceeded the university’s $500 million goal set in 2015.
Daigle said that the university has made “impressive and durable progress” during the decade he was on the board.
“From the highly successful launch of the University of Vermont Foundation, to the significant physical improvements made to our campus, to the gains we have made in strengthening our human capital across the University, we have collectively elevated UVM as an institution in and for Vermont,” Daigle said.
Daigle thanked the campus community for the opportunity to serve as the board’s chair.
“With strong leadership, and student success as our true North, I am confident in UVM’s ability to continue to have a profoundly positive impact on future generations of students and the State of Vermont,” he said.
