Polytechnic University Names New President

Jerry MacArthur Hultin, a former Under Secretary of the Navy, has been named the 10th president of Polytechnic University. Hultin, dean of the Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management and a professor of management at Stevens Institute of Technology, will assume the presidency of Polytechnic on July 1.

“Following an extensive national search for a new president, we are pleased that Jerry Hultin has agreed to join the University,” said Craig G. Matthews, chairman of Polytechnic’s Board of Trustees. “He has the skill set, vision and drive to expand Polytechnic’s role as one of the nation’s leading technological and research universities.”

Matthews noted that Polytechnic has a rich heritage—through its teaching and its research—of educating young men and women who become leaders in the use of science and technology to improve the quality of life in the United States and around the world. “The trustees of Polytechnic University,” Matthews added, “are excited by the opportunity to have Jerry Hultin join with Polytechnic’s faculty and staff in meeting the scientific, engineering and management challenges of the coming decades.”

On being named president, Hultin stated: “I am honored to be joining Polytechnic University. I believe the future belongs to those young women and men who are able to design, innovate and manage with leading-edge science and technology. Here in the United States and around the world, the need is escalating for scientific innovation, engineering brilliance and honest, entrepreneurial business leadership. Polytechnic, through its faculty, students, administrators and graduates — and its location at the heart of the most vibrant urban culture in the world — is ready to take a key role in providing the education and research that results in real growth and development.”

As dean of the Howe School of Technology Management since 2000, Hultin was responsible for the leadership of Stevens’ newest academic school dedicated to producing outstanding education and research that addresses the needs of companies, government and individuals as they manage technology-dependent organizations. Hultin was influential in guiding research on homeland security at Stevens Institute, including serving as principal investigator for a widely-read study on using “network centric operations” to improve the security of the Port of New York and New Jersey.

From 1997 to 2000, Hultin served as Under Secretary of the Navy, the department’s number two civilian leader. He was instrumental in fostering innovation in strategic vision, war fighting and business operations to meet the evolving needs of the Navy and Marine Corps.

Hultin spent more than 25 years in the private sector. His work included the practice of law, the management of small businesses and business consulting in areas of technology, health care, student loan finance and the environment. From 1994 through 1997, he was a partner in Jefferson Partners, an investment banking firm based in Washington, D.C. At the same time, he served as a member of the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel and as a member of the Board of Directors of Freddie Mac, one of the nation’s largest holders of housing mortgages.

A former commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy, Hultin is a 1964 graduate of Ohio State University and a 1972 graduate of Yale Law School. He is an honorary fellow of the Foreign Policy Association, a member of the NY Transatlantic Council and advises business organizations, including a major telecommunications corporation and a global investment banking firm.

Polytechnic’s current president, Dr. David C. Chang, announced last year that he was stepping down as president on June 30, 2005, after serving the University for 11 years.