W&M Board of Visitors renews contract for President Taylor Reveley
The William & Mary Board of Visitors approved a resolution Friday extending the contract of university President Taylor Reveley through June 2015. Reveley has served as William & Mary’s 27th president since 2008.
“The Board is delighted that President Reveley has agreed to continue serving as our president for three more years,” said Jeffrey B. Trammell, Rector of the College. “From strategic planning to communications to philanthropy, Taylor understands our challenges. He is guiding us through challenging financial times at William & Mary as we strive to ensure the College’s academic mission. There is much to be excited about moving forward. The Board looks forward to his continued visionary leadership.”
Reveley was named president in
September 2008 after serving as interim president for six months. Prior to
becoming president, Reveley served as dean of the William & Mary Law School
from 1998-2008. Reveley’s extended three-year contract is effective July 1,
2012.
“William & Mary is an iconic institution of higher education, deeply rooted in America’s past and now moving powerfully forward in our time,” Reveley said. “Great history plus striking contemporary accomplishment is a dynamite combination. It’s a privilege and an honor to be the College’s 27th president.”
Since becoming president, Reveley has placed an emphasis on building a sustainable financial foundation for the university. Soon after assuming the presidency, Reveley launched a new strategic planning effort – the first at the College since 1994. Today, that planning effort has revolutionized how the university approaches long-term planning. It engages all parts of the William & Mary community and serves as a roadmap for the College’s future – both in terms of vision and direction and budgeting needs. Another priority, which also aligns closely with the College’s financial foundation, has been building a powerful and effective philanthropic operation that utilizes and fosters lifelong connections with members of the William & Mary family. Despite the challenges of the recent economic recession, Reveley has overseen the College’s most successful fundraising years. During the last fiscal year 2011, for example, the College set records in both the number of individuals (more than 28,600) and number of undergraduate alumni (13,823) who gave to the College during a single fiscal year. The president has also taken on an active role as the university’s chief communicator. Reveley chairs the College’s senior communications committee and has been a driving force behind a revamp of William & Mary’s university-level strategy and organizational structure.
Before coming to the College, Reveley practiced law at Hunton & Williams for 28 years. He was managing partner of the international firm for nine years. He is a trustee emeritus of Princeton University, where he served on the board for 14 years. He is a former president of the Richmond Symphony and of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, as well as a former Board chair of the Virginia Historical Society. He is a current trustee and chair-elect of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Reveley, who received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University in 1965 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, has written extensively about the constitutional division of the war powers between the president and Congress. In 1972-73, he spent 13 months studying the war powers while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City and a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. In 2008, he served as co-director of the National War Powers Commission, a bipartisan group headed by U.S. Secretaries of State James Baker and Warren Christopher.
Reveley received his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1968 and clerked for Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. Reveley and his wife, Helen, have four adult children and two daughters-in-law.
