WEBSTER GROVES, Mo. — After a months-long search, Webster University announced on Tuesday that it has selected a successor to fill the shoes of former chancellor Elizabeth Stroble, who stepped down last year as the university came under fire for financial struggles.
Tim Keane, a St. Louis native and the current dean of Knauss School of Business at the University of San Diego, was unanimously selected by Webster University's Board of Trustees to serve as the next chancellor.
Keane will step into the role on Aug. 1. Board of Trustees Chair Sumit Verma will serve as interim chancellor until then and will waive compensation for those duties, the university said.
“I am looking forward to returning to St. Louis and working with the outstanding faculty and staff at Webster as we continue to strengthen Webster’s financial well-being, growing our domestic and international enrollment, and finding new ways to meet the needs of the students,” Keane said in a prepared statement. “I am so impressed by what is in place at Webster now and the highest priority for me is to learn more from all of those in the global Webster community.
"I’m excited to hear their ideas on how we build on the wonderful foundation at Webster and accelerate the current trajectory of enrollment growth the Webster team has recently achieved.”
Keane has served as dean of Knauss School of Business since 2020 and during his tenure was named one of the most influential businesspeople in San Diego several times by the San Diego Business Journal.
Keane spent 20 years in private enterprise, including 17 years at Anheuser Busch, Inc., where he served as the founding director of the company's Information Based Selling group, according to the university.
He entered academia in 2003, when he was named the Ewing Marion Kauffman Entrepreneurial Scholar in the Helzberg School of Management at Rockhurst University in Kansas City. In 2006, he became the director of the Emerson Ethics Center with Saint Louis University, where he stayed for nine years.
Keane was selected in 2015 as the founding dean of the business school of Regis University in Denver.
“We had many qualified applicants, but Tim really stood out with his extensive success in private enterprise and academia,” Board of Trustees Vice Chair Gay Burns said in a prepared statement. “He comes to Webster with a long history of leadership, a strong focus on key financial and performance indicators and an ability to elevate organizations to new levels of success.”
Stroble announced last year that she would retire as chancellor on Dec. 31.
The announcement of a leadership change came as the university is under fire for financial struggles amid a report from the St. Louis Post Dispatch that showed the university lost more than $128 million over the past decade.
In early September, the owner of the downtown building that houses the university's Gateway campus sued the university, claiming it stopped paying its rent.
Later that month, students staged a walkout in protest of budget cuts and a pay raise for Stroble and President Julian Schuster, on the same day faculty members voted 59-41 that they had "no confidence" in either administrator.
The university said in a statement last year that after a "long-planned sabbatical" through early 2024, Stroble would continue to support the university through alumni relations and fundraising.
