Jan 25, 2014 07:02 AM EST By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

University of Michigan (U-M) Board of Regents has unanimously chosen Mark S. Schlissel, the current provost of Brown University, as the school's 14^th president, effective July 1. Schlissel replaces Mary Sue Coleman, a biochemist, who served at the top administrative job since 2002.

Prior to serving as Provost at Brown since 2011, the 56-year-old was the dean of biological sciences at the College of Letters & Science, University of California-Berkeley and held the C.H. Li Chair in Biochemistry.

The Regents were looking out for a respected academician with business insight and fund-raising experience in their next president. They found Schlissel to be an ideal match.

"Mark Schlissel brings an exceptional portfolio of scholarship and leadership, and just as importantly a tremendous commitment to Michigan's public ethos," Andrea Fischer Newman, head of the Board of Regents, said in the statement. "He has a deep passion for both the role of the research university and especially of the role of the public research community."

Schlissel will begin a new chapter at U-M amid a $4-billion fund-raising campaign and attempts to cut down financial expenditures to prevent tuition hikes.

"I will bring to Michigan a fierce commitment to the importance of public research universities, a strong and personal belief in the ability of education to transform lives, and the understanding that academic excellence and diversity are inextricably linked," Schlissel said.

Schlissel also plans to consider student's point of view in crucial decisions.

The bio medical researcher holds an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Princeton University and a Ph.D. and M.D., from John Hopkins. Schlissel was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

Schlissel has been offered a five-year contract with an annual salary of $750,000, making him the highest salaried public university president in the United States. Schlissel's base pay is nearly $150,000 more than Coleman's, MLive reports.

Besides his salary, he is also due to receive $100,000 in annual retention bonus, $20,000 in annual retirement pay, car and driver, free housing at U-M's historic president's house on South University Avenue.

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