The Texas A&M System Board of Regents will meet at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, March 7, to discuss and possibly name a finalist for the chancellor position, according to the Board’s open meeting notice.
The special meeting will be held in the Board of Regents Annex in the Memorial Student Center. After convening, the nine regents will immediately enter an executive session, a closed-door segment inaccessible to attendees, to consult with System attorneys and discuss the chancellor search. The Board will then exit the executive session before possibly voting on naming a finalist.
The five finalists for the System’s top position are Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar ‘93, Texas A&M Foundation President Tyson Voelkel ‘96, University of Alabama President Stuart Bell ‘79, State Rep. Trent Ashby ‘96 (R-9) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-10). The Board interviewed the candidates on Feb. 24 in a separate special meeting but couldn’t reach a consensus by the end of the day.
Whoever is chosen will succeed Chancellor John Sharp, who announced last year that he will retire on June 30, 2025. The System hired Russell Reynolds Associates, a nationally recognized company used by various universities, to lead the search, and the working group that presented finalists to the regents included Board of Regents Chairman Bill Mahomes, Vice Chairman Robert L. Albritton, Regent David Baggett and Regent Jay Graham.
Texas law dictates that if the Board names a finalist, they must wait 21 days before officially appointing them as chancellor. Whoever is chosen will lead the System’s 11 universities and eight state agencies, including the flagship campus in College Station.
Of the five finalists, four are Aggies and three are politicians. Hegar has served as state comptroller since 2015. He graduated with a degree in political science and history and acts as Texas’ chief financial officer. Voelkel has been president and CEO of the Texas A&M Foundation for eight years and has raised more than $1.5 billion for A&M. He is also a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.
Bell is the current president of the University of Alabama and graduated from A&M with a nuclear engineering degree in 1979. He previously held several other university positions, including executive vice president and provost at Louisiana State University and dean of the University of Kansas’ College of Engineering. He announced that he was stepping down from the position earlier this year.
Ashby represents the Texas House of Representatives District 9, previously representing the 57th district from 2013 to 2023. While at A&M, he was a Senior Yell Leader and senator in the Student Government Association. McCaul represents the 10th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he is chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
