SCIENCE

Distinguished Higher Education Leaders from the University of Michigan and Indiana University to Lead Board of Trustees for U.S. Advanced Networking Consortium

Internet2 announced today that it has confirmed its board of trustees leadership for the next four years. University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman was elected chair of the board of trustees and will serve until July 2012.  Indiana University President Michael McRobbie was elected vice chair, and will serve in this role until July 2012.  He will then become chair and serve in that role until July 2015. The member-focused board provides strategic direction, leadership and oversight for the organization and greater community.

Mary Sue Coleman has led the University of Michigan since being appointed its 13th president in August 2002. President Coleman has led groundbreaking partnerships and served in many leadership positions throughout higher education. She is one of three co-chairs appointed by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke to lead the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and recently joined President Obama’s Advanced Manufacturing Partnership. She has served as a member of the Internet2 Board of Trustees since 2003. In 2008, as chair of the Internet2 Board Membership Committee, she led an effort that resulted in the first significant change to Internet2’s membership structure. The University of Michigan was an instrumental founding member of Internet2 when it was established in 1997.

Michael McRobbie became Indiana University's 18th president on July 1, 2007 after joining the university as vice president for information technology in 1997, a role he held until he became president.  He also served as interim provost and vice president for academic affairs for IU’s Bloomington campus in 2006-2007. Under his leadership, IU’s information technology program emerged as a national leader, and the strategic IT plan he initiated is now considered a model for educational institutions across the country. Also, in that capacity, President McRobbie championed Indiana University’s role as a founding member of Internet2, and served as an active member of the Internet2 Network Planning and Policy Advisory Council (NPPAC) from 2000 – 2005, which was crucial to the ongoing development and management of the Internet2 organization.

“It is an honor to welcome President Coleman and President McRobbie to these leadership positions on the Internet2 Board of Trustees. I am excited to work with both of these distinguished leaders whose previous contributions to the development of Internet2 were instrumental to its founding and success as the nation’s premiere university-driven and university-governed Research and Education Network.  I am confident that their work in these new roles, and in these new times – will bring completely new dimensions of value and success to our community,” said Internet2 President and CEO Dave Lambert.