Gary Sax, director of Yale’s Office of Budget and Planning, is leaving the University in June to retire in Tucson, Ariz., with his wife.

Sax has served as budget director since 1996 and is responsible for preparing Yale’s $1.3 billion budget. He reports to the vice president of finance and administration and works closely with the provost’s office. A search for a new budget director will begin shortly, said Provost Alison Richard, Yale’s chief academic and financial officer.

During Sax’s tenure, the University budget has continued its radical transformation from producing deficits to generating forecasted surpluses. Hired while Yale was still emerging from its financial woes, Sax has seen numbers become much more pleasant to work with in the last five years as endowment growth has pumped millions of additional dollars into the budget.

“I’m deeply greatful for everything that Gary has contributed, and I will miss him greatly,” Richard said. “He has done a tremendous amount in his tenure.”

Sax is on vacation this week and could not be reached for comment.

Prior to his stint as budget director, Sax was the director of the office planning support in the Yale Medical School from 1995 to 1996. He began his employment at the University in 1994 as a senior planning associate in the Medical School.