River City Co. CEO starts 4-year stint as UT trustee
RIVER CITY CO. CEO STARTS 4-YEAR STINT AS UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE TRUSTEE FROM CHATTANOOGA
kim White recalls a time not too long ago when everything from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga had to be orange. “When you were fundraising, it had to have the Knoxville ‘UT.’ All the business cards had to have an orange ‘T’ on it,” she recalled.
But over the past several years, that has changed. Each campus in the UT system can now be more individualized, and that has helped strengthen the separate universities, White says.
“Having that perspective is important at the UT Board of Trustees level,” said White, the chief executive of Chattanooga’s nonprofit downtown redevelopment group River City Co., who was recently named to the key university panel.
White, 57, on July 1 started a fouryear stint on the newly reconfigured board. The revamped board goes from 27 members to just 11 voting trustees and a non-voting student trustee.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has said much of his impetus in pushing for changes at UT were inspired by his own 2016 FOCUS Act. It broke up the Tennessee Board of Regents system, which spun off five universities while keeping community colleges and technical schools under TBR. Haslam said he’s seen a level of engagement among board members of newly self-governing universities like Middle Tennessee State University that he doesn’t see at UT.
White, a UTC graduate who is the only board member from Southeast Tennessee, says that while the governor will appoint its members, the panel will elect a chairperson, which is a change from the past.
One of the new board’s first jobs is to
› Hometown:
Chattanooga
› Job: River City Co. CEO
› Age: 57
› Education:
Hixson High School, UTC
› New challenge:
UT Board of Trustees member
› Quote: “The way it’s set up now, I represent the whole system. But my knowledge of UTC can’t but help.”