Kamaleswaran to serve as interim vice chancellor for Business and Administrative Services

To: UC Santa Cruz Community

From: Chancellor Cynthia Larive

Dear Campus Community,

I am pleased to announce that Biju Kamaleswaran, our Associate Vice Chancellor, Financial Affairs and Campus Controller, has agreed to serve as interim Vice Chancellor for Business and Administrative Services. His interim appointment takes effect Jan. 4, 2022, pending approval by the UC president.

Sarah Latham, our longtime vice chancellor of BAS, was appointed as the new Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration at Brown University in September. She will continue at UC Santa Cruz through the end of fall quarter, working closely with Biju. A national search for a permanent replacement is expected to be launched in early 2022, with a goal of having the new leader in place before the end of the calendar year.

In his current campus role, Biju is a financial management leader. He has been a key leader in BAS’s adoption of optimization processes and move toward lean thinking, which involves eliminating wasteful business steps and maximizing employee empowerment to create a more efficient and effective university. Biju strives to make sure our faculty and staff can spend their time on the mission-critical parts of their jobs, not on antiquated processes and tools, with an end goal of better serving our students.

He is a strong manager and has a passion for our core missions — improving the student experience and enabling research and scholarship that can make the world a better place.

Biju joined our campus in May 2019, coming to us from Arizona, where he served as the Deputy Director of Operations and Chief Financial Officer for the Arizona State Lottery. Prior to that position, Biju was Director Fiscal Budget and Deputy Chief Financial Officer for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Widener University, and a master’s in finance from Temple University.

Please join me in thanking Biju for agreeing to lead the division in the months ahead.

In addition to service as vice chancellor for BAS, Sarah was also our Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer. Isabel Dees, our Associate Vice Chancellor for Equity & Equal Protection (EEP), will now take on that role, which closely aligns with her role in overseeing the administration of policies and procedures regarding discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, religion, disability, sex, gender, age and other protected identities. I appreciate her willingness to take on this important role for our campus.

I have also asked Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer to temporarily oversee Athletics and Recreation (A&R), a change that was effective Nov. 1. Lori oversaw the Department of Athletics while she was Provost and Dean of Faculty at Colby College, where competitive athletics was at the NCAA Division III level as it is here, and the department included intramurals, physical education, and recreation. With this experience, Lori is uniquely qualified to steward this area through a period of transition.

We anticipate this change in reporting for A&R to be temporary. In the year ahead, we will continue conversations and engagement about the most appropriate organizational home to ensure the success of Athletics and Recreation.

Sincerely,
Cindy

Cynthia Larive
Chancellor