Christina Lee, Photography Editor

Jonathan Levin, the son of former Yale President Richard Levin, was announced as Stanford University’s next president in an email to the Stanford community early Thursday morning. His tenure will begin on Aug. 1.

The announcement marks the end of a six-month search process that formally began Sept. 14. Levin will succeed Richard Saller, who was appointed interim president after former president Marc Tessier-Lavigne announced on July 19, 2023 that he would resign after a Stanford-sponsored report found “serious flaws” in his research but concluded that he “did not personally engage in research misconduct.”

“I congratulate Jon, who was raised in our home city of New Haven, and has gone on to be an accomplished economist, educator, scholar, and dean,” University President Peter Salovey wrote to the News. “He has done wonderful things for Stanford, which I am sure is in good hands. Of course, I am also thrilled for Jon’s parents, Rick and Jane Levin, and for my undergraduate alma mater.”

In an email announcement, chair of Stanford’s Board of Trustees Jerry Yang wrote that the school’s trustees had voted unanimously to offer Levin, a Stanford alum and dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the presidency. 

Yang also wrote that over 800 people were nominated for the role and that the search committee “conducted intensive due diligence on a final group of candidates.”

“The search committee found that Jon brings a rare combination of qualities: an impressive track record of academic and leadership success, the analytical prowess to tackle complex strategic issues, and a collaborative and optimistic working style,” Yang’s email read. “He is consistently described by those who know him as principled, humble, authentic, thoughtful, and inspiring.”

Former president Levin wrote to the News that he and his wife Jane “are thrilled for Jon and for Stanford.”

Yale’s own presidential search is now in its seventh month, having begun two weeks before Stanford’s.

Similar to Stanford’s search, all members of the Yale Corporation, Yale’s 16-member board of trustees, will vote on who succeeds Salovey. Per Yale’s bylaws, all decisions made by the Corporation are determined by a majority vote. 

The Corporation meets on campus at least five times a year. Their next meeting is set for Saturday, April 20, which will be their last before most students disperse for the summer recess. Student Advisory Council member and chair of the Graduate Student Assembly Christopher Lindsay GRD ’26 wrote to the News that he believes the Corporation will cast their ballots then.

In an interview with the News in February, Salovey said that he presumes the Corporation’s decision for his successor will be unanimous. In his Aug. 31 statement announcing that he would be stepping down, though, Salovey wrote that he would, if needed, remain Yale’s president past his planned departure date of June 30 “to provide leadership continuity” if the Corporation requires more time for its search.

“I would suspect they would want the choice of a president to be, if not unanimous, close to unanimous,” Salovey told the News of Yale’s search on Feb. 26. “And if it weren’t, they would keep talking.”

Prior to earning three degrees — an M.S. in 1983, M.Phil. in 1984 and a Ph.D. in 1986 — in psychology at Yale, Salovey obtained a B.A. in psychology and M.A. in sociology from Stanford in 1980 with departmental honors and university distinction.