Steve Wrigley Named University System Executive Vice Chancellor

Chancellor-designate Hank Huckaby has named Dr. Steve W. Wrigley as executive vice chancellor for administration for the University System of Georgia (USG), effective July 1, 2011. Wrigley will have responsibility for a number of departments that will be defined once Huckaby assumes the chancellorship.

Wrigley is currently interim vice president for Public Service and Outreach as well as vice president for government relations for the University of Georgia (UGA) and is a longtime UGA senior staff member. He is a veteran of state government under former Gov. Zell Miller.

“I have had the opportunity to watch Steve for many years and have witnessed his high level of ability in a wide variety of key positions and important assignments,” Huckaby said. “Steve knows and understands both state government and public higher education and will bring great strengths to his new role. I am delighted he will be joining our senior team at the University System Office.”

At the University System Office, Wrigley takes over from Rob Watts, who will continue to work for the immediate future with Wrigley and others during Huckaby’s transition as the new USG chancellor.

Wrigley joined UGA in 1998 as the first director of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government’s International Center for Democratic Governance. In 2000, he became UGA’s vice president for government relations, overseeing federal, state and local government relations for UGA.

In March 2002, Wrigley was named interim senior vice president for external affairs, a post that became permanent in Nov. of that year. In July 2006, Wrigley returned to the Vinson Institute as its director, while continuing in his role as vice president for government relations, until being named to his current position at UGA this past April.

His career in state government began in 1988, when he joined then Lt. Gov. Miller’s staff as an executive assistant, becoming a senior policy advisor in 1991. Wrigley then left in 1992 to establish a university/business partnership to examine and address public policy issues for Georgia State University’s Policy Research Center.

Following Miller’s election as governor, Wrigley returned to work in the Miller administration, serving as the governor’s chief of staff from 1993 to 1998. Wrigley earned his undergraduate degree from Georgia State University and his doctorate in history from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.