Executive Director of University Events

The Executive Director serves as the University’s senior event leader, providing strategic direction, institutional governance, and executive oversight for all presidential-level and other high-impact University events, including commencement ceremonies and other major institutional events. Reporting to and closely aligned with the Vice President, Chief of Staff, and University Secretary, in the Office of the President, this role is responsible for setting vision, priorities, and standards for the University’s event portfolio while ensuring consistent, high-quality execution and protection of the University’s reputation.

This position provides strong executive leadership over the event team, with a clear expectation of effective delegation, performance management, and accountability across all assigned staff and event portfolios. The Executive Director is ultimately accountable for outcomes, but achieves results by building capacity within the team, empowering leaders at all levels, and ensuring decisions are made at the appropriate level, rather than through personal control of day-to-day tactics.

As the strategic lead for university events, the Executive Director operates at the portfolio and enterprise level, translating presidential and University priorities into cohesive event strategies, setting standards and protocols, managing risk, and guiding teams to deliver results within defined frameworks. This role requires the ability to move fluidly between strategy and execution, stepping in directly where necessary for the most sensitive or high‑stakes events, while maintaining focus on long‑term planning, organizational effectiveness, and continuous improvement.

The Executive Director leads cross‑functional collaboration with academic and administrative partners, exercises sound financial oversight of event budgets and resources, and serves as a trusted advisor to senior leadership. A core responsibility of the role is ensuring that institutional protocol, quality control, and risk assessment are embedded into all planning and execution, and that leaders are equipped with clear, timely, and decision‑ready information.

This position reflects a deliberate shift toward a tiered, standards‑driven, governance‑oriented, and data‑informed model for managing University events. In its early phases, the Executive Director is responsible for building and operationalizing the governance framework, establishing clear roles, decision rights, and performance expectations, and strengthening the Office’s capacity to operate effectively without over‑reliance on any single individual. The role is expected to lead at a strategic and enterprise level, setting direction, priorities, and standards;

developing leaders within the team; and ensuring accountability for results. Execution is intentionally focused on institutional‑level and high‑stakes events, with the Executive Director engaging directly where executive judgment, visibility, or risk requires it, while otherwise ensuring work is appropriately delegated and managed. Central to this work is improving efficiency, enforcing portfolio discipline, and implementing meaningful measures of success to guide future investment, resource allocation, and decision‑making.

While ultimately accountable for outcomes, the Executive Director is expected to delegate execution responsibility to portfolio‑owning leaders, intervening directly only when institutional risk, protocol exception, or executive visibility requires.

• Serve as the primary point of coordination between the Office and the Office of the President.
• Collaborate with the Vice President, Chief of Staff, and University Secretary to translate University and presidential priorities into a…