Dr. Gary Bonvillian joined Thomas University as President on July 1, 2006. He was the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Keuka College from 2001 until 2006. He also held the position of Professor in Business and Management. Keuka is an independent, four-year, co-educational, liberal-arts-based institution, established in 1890, and is located in the Finger Lakes Region of Western New York. During Dr. Bonvillian’s period of leadership at Keuka, the school experienced unprecedented growth, expanding its satellite campus operations from one site to eighteen, throughout New York State. In addition, Keuka launched a one year program of study in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that grew to approximately 4200 participating students between 2002 and 2006. This unique program, designed for Chinese students working through government approved universities, resulted in Keuka College becoming the largest foreign provider of higher education in the PRC.

Prior to joining the senior administrative team of Keuka, Dr. Bonvillian was the Dean of the School of Business and Professional Studies at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colorado. He also held an appointment as a Professor of Management. The school had a diverse faculty, offering undergraduate and graduate business programs, as well as nursing, radiologic sciences and human performance and wellness. It also had three auxiliary operations, two of which were launched by Dr. Bonvillian, including The Dixon Center for Entrepreneurial Development, the Bureau for Economic and Business Research and the Council for Economic Education. He joined the College in July of 1999.

From 1996 until 1999 Dr. Bonvillian was the Associate Dean in the College of Business at Florida Gulf Coast University, responsible for administrative oversight of all academic programs, including external and international programs. He was also the founding Director of the Center for Leadership and Innovation (CLI). Dr. Bonvillian was a member of the administrative team that opened the new university in 1997. In his role as Director of the CLI, Dr. Bonvillian was responsible for a wide range of external activities. These activities included, development, marketing and administration of the Executive MBA Program, creating faculty opportunities for applied research in economic development, the Small Business Development Center of Southwest Florida, and a variety of non-credit bearing activities including university consulting, training and professional development. He held a faculty position as Associate Professor in the Management Department.

Prior to joining the leadership team of FGCU, Dr. Bonvillian was a member of the faculty and administration at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Joining RIT in 1976 with the Division of Records and Institutional Research, his many roles and special assignments spanned twenty years. From 1981 until his departure, Dr. Bonvillian was with the College of Business for nearly eighteen years, holding the positions of Director of Administrative and Student Services; Assistant Dean and Director of External Programs; and, Associate Dean of the College.

Dr. Bonvillian has designed and taught courses at the undergraduate, graduate and executive level in the topics of organizational behavior, management practices, leadership, career development, total quality, and leading change, which continues to be his primary research interest. He has presented at national and international conferences on the subject of leading change and total quality; published in both practitioner and academic journals; contributed chapters in two books on the subject of quality in higher education; and is lead author of The Liberal Arts College Adapting to Change: The Survival of Small Schools, released in 1996 by Garland Publishing.

Dr. Bonvillian has served on numerous boards, and, in addition to his academic work, he has consulted in the areas of managing change, organizational development, leadership and quality assessments.

Dr. Bonvillian holds a Ph.D. from SUNY Buffalo and an M.S. and B.S. degree from Rochester Institute of Technology.