COLUMBIA - University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe will join the ranks of some of the state’s legendary names when he is honored as a 2015 recipient of the Missourian Award, which recognizes the state’s most outstanding citizens who have had a significant influence on their communities and the state of Missouri. The president will be presented with the award during a banquet and ceremony at the Chateau on the Lake in Branson on Saturday, August 15, 2015.
The Missourian Award was created by Ralph Slavens and his late wife, Corrine, to honor prominent citizens that were either born in Missouri or became famous in the state. Proceeds from the Missourian Award benefit the American Heart Association. Nominees must have made outstanding contributions to their community, the state of Missouri or the nation in fields such as civics, business, arts or politics. Past winners of the prestigious award include Walter Cronkite, George Washington Carver, Walt Disney, Mark Twain and President Harry S Truman.
“I am deeply moved to receive an honor such as the Missourian Award, and humbled to be mentioned with such Missouri legends as Harry S Truman and Walter Cronkite,” Wolfe said. “I have always been proud to call the state of Missouri home and am honored to be entrusted with the presidency of the University of Missouri System. To be recognized as someone that embodies the heritage and spirit of our great state is truly something special.”
An alumnus of the University of Missouri-Columbia with deep roots in the state, Wolfe oversees the four-campus UM System – one of the nation’s largest public research university systems with more than 77,000 students, 32,000 employees and a half million alumni worldwide. Since becoming the 23rd president of the UM System in 2011, Wolfe’s top priorities have included increasing the overall awareness of the role the system’s four campuses play in advancing the education, economy, health, innovation, arts, culture and overall quality of life across the state; leading the system’s campuses in a strategic planning process that sets a clear strategy for success over the next five to ten years; finding and implementing opportunities for more efficiencies across the system; investing in the university’s human capital and expanding research and economic development initiatives.
Prior to joining the university, Wolfe had a 30-year career in leadership positions in the corporate world, with experience in information technology, software, consulting and sales. He is a 1995 graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program, earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1980 from MU’s Trulaske College of Business, and graduated from Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, where he started at quarterback for the 1975 state championship football team.
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Reviewed 2015-08-14