Westminster College selected Benjamin Akande as its next president, effective July 1.
Westminster announced Akande's appointment to the position Friday at a press conference on campus. Akande said he is looking forward to getting to know the college's students, faculty, staff and alumni as well as the Fulton community.
"I want to hear your hopes, I want to listen to your aspirations ... I want to hear your thoughts about the challenges and opportunities that are bound for our great college," Akande said during the press conference.
"Friends, we have great work to do together as we advance the strategic plan and develop a national reputation ... and developing young men and women from all over the world to be leaders in a global community," he said.
Akande arrives to Westminster after 15 years at Webster University in St. Louis, where he served as dean of the university's George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology. Similar to Westminster - Webster is a small liberal arts college with an international presence.
"As the dean of the Walker School of Business and Technology, I began to understand the power of humility and to harness my real strength as a leader, becoming a servant leader," Akande said.
Westminster chose Akande after a year-long search. Last spring, Westminster's current president Barney Forsythe announced he would retire at the end of the 2014-15 school year. During the press conference Friday, Forsythe expressed confidence in Akande's ability to lead the college.
"I purposely announced my intent to retire at the end of this school year a year ago so the college would have time to conduct a thoughtful and orderly search that would lead to a smooth transition to the new president. And we have spent the past 12 months carefully examining potential candidates," Forsythe said. "We come to this day with immense excitement about the future of Westminster. In my judgment, we have found the right person to lead the college in the years to come."
Presidential Advisory Search Committee Chair Hal Oakley, who is also on the college's board of trustees, told the Fulton Sun that the committee liked Akande's combination of a liberal arts and business higher education background.
"He exemplifies everything we were looking for," Oakley said. "The vision he brings because of his business background will make him an effective leader of the business of the college."
Through the presidential search process, Oakley said the committee and people involved in the search found Akande to be "relatable" to people with a variety of backgrounds.
"He speaks our language," Oakley said. "He can relate to a great number of people."
He added that the college sees Akande's national and international relationships as a benefit, as well. Akanade said Friday that Westminster's location and mission would allow him to utilize relationships he has built in his career.
"It (Westminster's president position) was an opportunity also that is in close proximity to where I have remarkable relationships which I am going to bring with me to Fulton. And I look forward to making new friends and building new relationships with folks in the community of Fulton and also with our alumns who are spread all over the world," Akande said.
The college's Board of Trustees' chairman, Wallace L. Head, said Friday that Akande has experienced first hand the "transformative power of education."
Akande was raised in Nigeria. He came to the U.S. for college and earned his bachelor's of science degree in business administration from Wayland Baptist University in Texas. He later earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Oklahoma and completed post-doctoral studies at Harvard and Oxford.
Akande said he remembers feeling scared when he first came to the U.S. from Nigeria 35 years ago as he was starting college.
"I stepped onto that campus and I was scared to death. What did I know? How could I possibly succeed in this new and different land," Akande said. "I found my footing as I realized how I could help others to accomplish their goals and to help them to dream with their eyes wide open, to imagine the impossible and to make the impossible come true."
Akande and his family, Oakley said, plan to move to the Fulton community. He added that Akande will meet with the college's board of trustees next Saturday.
Akande said he is honored and humbled to be given the opportunity to lead the college. He thanked the college's board of trustees for their confidence in his abilities. He also thanked his parents, his wife and his family for supporting him. He said for his parents, no sacrifice was too great when it came to educating their children. Keeping education accessible, Akande said, is important to him.
"I want to make a personal guarantee," Akande said, "that I will do all in my power to see that this college remains affordable, remains accessible for students worldwide. Those students who want to enjoy the quality and transformative experience that they only can get here."