UT president to step down June 30

Dr. Jacobs to attend fellowship in Washington

6/20/2014

University of Toledo President Lloyd Jacobs will step down June 30, and an interim president will be named Monday.

University officials say that Dr. Jacobs has been nominated to be a distinguished fellow for the Council on Competitiveness in Washington; Dr. Jacobs early departure will be called a sabbatical leave. He will return as a professor of surgery in 2015, according to a university release.

The announcement was expected, and accelerates the departure of Dr. Jacobs, who was already set to leave before his contract expired. Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, the university’s president since 2006, and UT jointly announced in March that he would step down effective June 30, 2015, a year before his contract ends.

“I have enjoyed the last eight years in my current role and ten years Ola and I have spent in Toledo,” Dr. Jacobs said in a release, referencing his wife, Ola. “I am enthusiastically looking forward to working with the Council on Competitiveness as a Distinguished Fellow during this sabbatical and perhaps beyond.”

A search for Dr. Jacobs‘‍ replacement is already under way, with search firm Witt/​Kieffer of Oak Brook, Ill., leading the effort.

“I want to thank Dr. Jacobs for his service to the University of Toledo and for elevating this institution to new heights on the national stage,” said Joseph H. Zerbey IV, board of trustees chairman and The Blade’s president and general manager. “Given that success, it is easy to see why the Council on Competitiveness would look to him to put that expertise to work on a national and international stage.”

The university is naming its new Interprofessional Immersive Simulation Center after Dr. Jacobs.

— Nolan Rosenkrans