Kolligian Named Regents Chairman

The University of California Board of Regents has appointed Leo Kolligian of Fresno as its new chairman.

Kolligian, the first Fresno resident to hold the job, will assume the helm of the nine-campus university system July 1, replacing Roy Clark.

Kolligian, 69, said he will strive to bring to the San Joaquin Valley a 10th UC campus, and one each to Northern and Southern California. Some university officials favor expanding existing campuses to meet the growing student demand. UC President David Gardner has mentioned the San Joaquin Valley as the possible site of a new campus.

Kolligian said he will not use his “position of power to override reasonableness and logic” on the valley campus question. “However, I’d like to think that it will have some favorable impact on the question of the 10th campus,” he said.

Kolligian has been on the Board of Regents five years. He is a non-practicing attorney who has been managing his own investments and participating in charities in recent years.