W&M BOV renews contract for President Reveley
“The Board understands the importance of strong leadership for the College as we navigate our way through challenging times,” said Henry C. Wolf, Rector of the College. “President Reveley has provided that strong leadership and so we asked him to continue beyond the term of his original contract to insure that the College continues to have the benefit of his leadership for several more years. We are delighted that he has agreed to continue to lead the university for at least three more years.”
Prior to being appointed president, Reveley served for six months as interim president for the university following the resignation of Gene Nichol. He immediately started staff working on the College’s next strategic plan, which now feeds directly into annual budget planning process. “William & Mary is a university of extraordinary caliber, rich in accomplishment and potential,” Reveley said. “I'm truly privileged to help lead it.”
A priority from the beginning, Reveley said, has been building a more stable financial foundation for the next century. To that end, the president oversaw the College’s most successful private fund-raising year ever in 2008-09 when William & Mary topped $50 million. In addition, he steered the College through the speed bumps of the national economic crisis, including a reduction of 32 percent (or $16.7 million) in state operating dollars over the past two years.
Over the past 27 months, Reveley has also been the catalyst in a number of key efforts, including the search for a new provost, two vice presidents and a new law dean; improved outreach to strengthen lifelong ties with alumni; as well as progress in William & Mary’s communications efforts, including chairing the College’s senior communications committee. The president even found time to launch a process that brought Tribe faithful a new mascot, the Griffin.
Rector Wolf said Reveley’s extended three-year contract is effective July 1, 2010. The president’s salary, he added, remains at $332,100 and his annual deferred compensation will continue to be $62,000.
“President Reveley asked the Board not to increase his compensation,” said Rector Wolf. “His salary is still where it was in November 2007, before he became interim president. The president was not willing to have a raise until other people at William & Mary can get raises.
“He said ‘We need them for everyone.’”
Prior to becoming president, Reveley served as dean of the William & Mary Law School from 1998-2008. Previously, he practiced law at Hunton & Williams for 28 years, including serving as managing partner of the international firm for nine years. Reveley is a trustee emeritus of Princeton University, where he served on the board for 14 years, and a former president of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, where he served on the Board for 10 years. He is a current trustee of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Virginia Historical Society where he chairs the Board.
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 children and two daughters-in-law.
