Wittenberg University President Michael L. Frandsen, Ph.D., has been selected to serve as vice president of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years.
Denison University President Adam Weinberg will serve as president the next two years after filling the vice president position since July 1, 2020. He succeeds Kenyon College President Sean Decatur, who will now serve a two-year term as the immediate past president on the Executive Committee.
Frandsen started his tenure as Wittenberg President on July 1, 2017, after serving as vice president for finance and administration at Oberlin College. In addition to overseeing finance and accounting, facilities, human resources, information technology, and investments at Oberlin, Frandsen served on the strategic planning steering committee and the enrollment management team.
Frandsen previously spent 10 years at Albion College in Michigan, where he held four different roles. Initially a faculty member in economics and management, he went on to serve as director of the Gerstacker Institute for Business and Management, an honors business program. In 2009, he joined the senior leadership team as vice president for finance and administration. For his final year at Albion, 2013-14, Frandsen was interim president.
Before joining the faculty at Albion, Frandsen spent five years at Juniata College in Pennsylvania as a faculty member in the accounting, business and economics department, as well as in the information technology department. Frandsen also taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Colorado College, St. Edward's (Texas) University, and his alma mater, The Pennsylvania State University.
Prior to his career in higher education, Frandsen worked in corporate finance for global companies in the telecommunication, chemical and electronics industries. Although his posts were always domestic, he worked for companies based in Canada, Germany and France, as well as the United States, in his more than 10 years in the corporate world.
In addition, Frandsen coached swimmers, from novice to Olympic Trials qualifiers, at clubs in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Colorado before pursuing his corporate career. He continued to coach part-time occasionally prior to his work in higher education.
Frandsen earned his Ph.D. in management, with an emphasis on strategic management, from the University of Texas at Austin. His dissertation examined how stock prices respond to announcements about new chief executives. He also holds an M.B.A. and B.S. in finance, both from The Pennsylvania State University.
Founded in 1983, the North Coast Athletic Conference consists of nine academically selective colleges and universities - Denison University, DePauw University, Hiram College, Kenyon College, Oberlin College, Ohio Wesleyan University, Wabash College, Wittenberg University and the College of Wooster along with affiliate members Allegheny College and Earlham College (field hockey). The NCAC sponsors 23 championship sports, 11 for men and 12 for women.
Wittenberg's curriculum has centered on the liberal arts as an education that develops the individual's capacity to think, read, and communicate with precision, understanding, and imagination. We are dedicated to active, engaged learning in the core disciplines of the arts and sciences and in pre-professional education grounded in the liberal arts. Known for the quality of our faculty and their teaching, Wittenberg has more Ohio Professors of the Year than any four-year institution in the state. The university has also been recognized nationally for excellence in community service, sustainability, and intercollegiate athletics. Located among the beautiful rolling hills and hollows of Springfield, Ohio, Wittenberg offers more than 100 majors, minors and special programs, enviable student-faculty research opportunities, a unique student success center, service and study options close to home and abroad, a stellar athletics tradition, and successful career preparation.
