THUNDER BAY – Brian Stevenson is stepping down as president of Lakehead University after seven-and-a-half years at the helm.
The university on Friday said he will leave office on Dec. 31.
In a letter to addressed to the Lakehead University community, Stevenson said he handed in his resignation with mixed feelings, but felt the time was right to move on.
He said 2018 will see the realization of a number of initiatives he’s been working on since taking the university’s top post, including new strategic and academic plans, and the Thunder Bay school’s first strategic enrolment management plan.
“These initiatives will require consistent stewardship over the next decade, and they will require the ongoing support of a president who can shepherd them as they grow and evolve,” Stevenson said in the letter.
“This will require a longer commitment of time than I am able to make. It is for this reason that I believe it is important for me to step down as your president. The goals we have been working on together are well underway and I feel my mission has been accomplished.
Stevenson said it wasn’t easy to walk away.
“This has been a very difficult decision to make, but I make it, as I always have, with the interests of the university foremost in my mind.”
Lakehead’s board of governor’s chair David Tamblyn said he accepted Stevenson’s resignation with regret.
“From the moment Dr. Stevenson was appointed Lakehead’s president, his vision and leadership have only served to enhance and improve the quality of our University,” said Tamblyn in the release.
“On behalf of the board of governors and the Lakehead University community, I profoundly thank Dr. Stevenson for his years of dedication and service. Our appreciation of all he has done for us runs deep, and we wish him and his family the best, going forward.”
Stevenson was appointed LU’s sixth president on Aug. 1, 2010, succeeding the outgoing Fred Gilbert. He was given a second five-year term in 2015.
A search process for his replacement will begin shortly.
