Unanimously selected by the Wittenberg University Board of Directors, Dr. Michael L. Frandsen officially takes the helm, ushering in a new era of excellence that will unite and inspire.
WRITTEN BY Karen Saatkamp Gerboth '93
PHOTOS BY Erin Pence '04
Michael Frandsen remembers the conversation well. It was in the mid-2000s when he was directing the Carl A. Gerstacker Institute for Business and Management—a 220-member honors undergraduate management program—at Albion College. It was here Frandsen became acquainted with an Albion student who was struggling academically.
“He wasn’t doing well, and he was on the verge of being dismissed from the program,” said Frandsen. The student “had a dream, but it wasn’t connected to how he was spending his time at Albion.”
So Frandsen stepped in to help. Together, the two talked through what was happening and why, discussed career paths and how to better connect the dots between the student’s aspirations and his studies. Frandsen then offered to be a partner in the student’s success, a move that would alter the student’s trajectory.
“He went from almost being asked to leave the program to being a top student with a top career,” Frandsen said. “He now works as an analyst for an investment firm that manages a multibillion-dollar portfolio.”
The simple gesture—an extension of hand and heart— proved life-changing for the student and reaffirmed Frandsen’s own passion for the liberal arts, where strong faculty-student relationships thrive.
The experience also placed Frandsen on a path that would ultimately lead the former Albion interim president and Oberlin vice president of finance and administration to the presidency of Wittenberg.
THE JOURNEY
Originally from State College, Pennsylvania, Frandsen grew up in Happy Valley, as locals and Nittany Lions’ fans call it. The Pennsylvania State University was his childhood playground. His father served on the speech communication faculty, and his mother handled special events for the president, so it was no surprise that Penn State became his only choice.
“My blood ran blue and white,” Frandsen said. “I went to sporting events on campus. I helped sell hot dogs and soda at football games. My parents’ friends were almost all associated with the university. It's what I knew,” he said.
Once at Penn State, Frandsen decided to focus on business, specifically finance. He also furthered his interest in coaching, having worked for years with the State College Area YMCA swim program. In hindsight, he admits that working in higher education was probably somewhere in the back of his mind because, at the time, a different career track called to him.
After earning his B.S. in finance with distinction, Frandsen decided to pursue swimming. He coached at clubs in Colorado and Tennessee, where he worked with athletes from novices to Olympic Trial qualifiers. His work was recognized with invitations to staff U.S. Swimming national age group development camps at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and the University of Alabama. The experience proved both demanding and inspiring as Frandsen partnered with top-level athletes to help them achieve their dreams. It also honed in him a teacher-coach mindset, which continues to influence his life and career.
“Today, I am still a teacher-coach who is energized by having a hand in helping others succeed,” he said. “I also understand that a successful leader does not achieve results alone.”
His first foray into corporate finance brought the latter sentiment into sharp focus. After coaching swimmers for several years, Frandsen returned to Happy Valley to serve as a financial specialist with HRB-Singer (now Raytheon). Recognizing his potential from day one, the company selected him for a special leadership development program with assignments across all areas of the finance division.
“I was fortunate in that I was able to interact with senior leaders at a young age and learn from them,” Frandsen said. “Being exposed to many different facets of a company’s operations helped me develop a broad perspective of an organization and its people. It also taught me to think broadly.”
For the next 10 years, Frandsen excelled in corporate finance, working for global companies in the telecommunication, chemical and electronics industries, leading teams to success and at one point managing a $1-billion-dollar sales unit. During that time, he also married the love of his life, Sharon Thompson. Their houses were two miles apart as the crow flies, though they never knew each other in their shared State College hometown of 40,000 until a mutual friend connected them his freshman year at Penn State. Sharon, a tri-athlete, pursued a B.A. in physical education at Penn State followed by a M.S. in kinesiology at Michigan.
Frandsen went on to earn his M.B.A. with honors from Penn State in quantitative business analysis, as well as an award for excellence from his last corporate stop, Canadian giant Nortel Networks, for his ability to guide, streamline and align an organization to achieve its goals. Then the teaching bug hit.
BACK TO CLASS
From the start of Frandsen’s faculty career, the former business executive brought an innovative spirit to his teaching as he helped students to see the big picture in his finance, entrepreneurship, statistics, accounting, and project management courses at Penn State, St. Edward’s University, Juniata College, Colorado College and Albion College.
Like the supervisors who saw Frandsen’s potential early in his corporate career, Frandsen saw the same in his students. He also saw the benefits of his industry background playing out in his classes and in his professional advancement in higher education, which included attaining his Ph.D. in management with a concentration in strategic management from the University of Texas at Austin.
“We can learn from both directions in each industry,” he said. Frandsen believes the corporate world can learn to be more deliberate and inclusive in its decision making, while higher education can learn to be more nimble. His thinking stems from the opportunities he has had to view an organization from the ground up and at 30,000 feet. Like a needlepoint in progress, Frandsen knows that the mess of threads from underneath the canvas can seem chaotic, yet the view from above shows the beautiful pattern that will eventually unfold.
In many ways, the picture describes the liberal arts, which Frandsen quickly came to embrace in his teaching career, having seen the power of the educational approach to enrich a student’s life.
“Learning should take place through comprehensive educational experiences occurring in the classrooms and laboratories, the residence halls, on stages and athletic fields, in communities, and everywhere else on and off campus,” he said.
“This kind of holistic learning provides the best way to equip today’s students for a dynamic, diverse, and interdependent world. A well-crafted, well-taught, and well-integrated residential liberal arts education prepares students for careers, for vocations, for citizenship, and for fulfilling lives.”
His seven years as a full-time faculty member also honed in him a firm belief that what happens in the classroom must be at the center of any college or university enterprise.
“A residential experience goes beyond the academic core, but it is the academic core at the center,” he said, adding that he would never trade his faculty experience “because I would not be able to do well what I am doing now without it."
According to Jonathan Eilert ’93, chair of the Wittenberg Board of Directors, Frandsen’s unique path to the 15th presidency of Wittenberg has informed him of the importance of shared governance, the power of an integrated residential experience, the art and science of enrollment, marketing and fundraising and the role of community-building in an institution’s long- term sustainability.
“President Frandsen clearly sees the big picture, finds the intersections that create opportunity, seeks out creative solutions and collaborates and communicates effectively with constituents, all while staying focused on students and their personal and professional success,” said Eilert, who chaired the presidential search committee that selected Frandsen following a six-month national search.
“We are thrilled to have attracted such a distinguished leader, and we are convinced that he will take Wittenberg to new heights of excellence.”
A NEW ERA BEGINS
Whether talking face-to-face or leading a group session, Frandsen has already immersed himself in Wittenberg, listening and taking in everything he can about the university over which he now presides. A self-described introvert, he approaches conversations with a respectful demeanor that exudes quiet confidence and accessibility. Even now, just a few months into his tenure, it is clear that stability will form the cornerstone of his presidency, as will authenticity, integrity, vision and exemplary leadership.
“My vision of a 21st-century liberal arts education focuses on teaching, learning, and community,” he said. “Each of us at higher education institutions, led by the faculty, but including many others, must see teaching as part of our role and responsibility.”
And see Wittenberg will.
Just as the student back at Albion experienced firsthand, so, too, will Wittenberg find in Frandsen a collegial, collaborative partner, as well as a genuine leader who will recharge the Tiger spirit, make students and families feel proud, reach out to alumni, and stay the course in making the university even more distinctive.
“Wittenberg is a vibrant community of learners that places teaching excellence and the success of every student at the forefront of its mission,” Frandsen said.
“It is a place where students learn by doing and a place that has welcomed Sharon, me and our grown daughters, Janie and Kate, from the start. Sharon and I will be present. We will be involved, and we are looking to be partners with Wittenberg and Springfield for the long term.”
As Frandsen shared with the campus on his first day, the chance to lead and, more importantly, to “steward this amazing university,” is an opportunity he accepts with gratitude and excitement.
“I am deeply honored to have been chosen to lead Wittenberg during this important time in its distinguished history, and I am confident that together with the Board, students, faculty, staff and alumni, we will be able to connect more students to our story, re-engage more alumni in our future, and redefine excellence for generations.”