A Message from the Chair of SLU's Board of Trustees
Earlier today, President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., announced that he will step down as SLU’s 33rd president in June 2025, after serving for eleven years.
In 2014, both President Pestello and I began our roles leading the University into its next chapter. We understood, quickly, the importance of our partnership. And I am glad that during the past ten years, he and I worked tirelessly with the Board of Trustees to elevate SLU’s reputation regionally and nationally, strengthen the University fiscally, and ensure that our decisions were firmly grounded in and driven by our Jesuit mission and values.
President Pestello’s list of accomplishments is formidable; he has transformed this University for the better.
With the approval of the Board of Trustees, President Pestello oversaw the construction of Spring Hall, Grand Hall, the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building, the Jesuit Center, and the O'Loughlin Family Champions Center.
He led the University to set new records for first-year enrollment, total enrollment, and international enrollment.
He envisioned commercial, retail, and residential partnerships to redevelop the Midtown area, creating a vibrant new destination for the St. Louis city and region.
He established a new healthcare partnership with SSM Health and, working with key trustees, set the stage for the construction and opening of the SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital, a brand new $550-million-dollar state of the art medical center near our campus. In addition, President Pestello has worked closely with the dean of the medical school to ensure increased excellence and continued success for our students, faculty, and staff at our outstanding medical school.
He also oversaw the most successful fundraising campaign in the University’s history, while skillfully navigating the University through the pandemic, avoiding job losses and ensuring that students could learn on campus from fall 2020 forward.
President Pestello committed himself to become a leader and partner in the St. Louis community, fostering strong relationships with business and community leaders and elected officials. Because of President Pestello’s strong relationships with city leaders and Trustees, his work with his leadership team, and his collaboration with all of you, the University has made remarkable progress toward his compelling vision: to become a global Jesuit University that is mission-focused, student- and patient-centered, and research-driven, working with the people of St. Louis to reimagine, transform, and unify our city.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I also want to acknowledge and thank Dr. Fran Pestello, the University’s inaugural presidential spouse, for her dedication to student success, the arts, and athletics, and her support of President Pestello and the campus community.
We know there is no Fred without Fran.
The Board of Trustees will immediately launch a search for the next president of Saint Louis University. I will chair a 13-member search committee, alongside six trustees, representatives from the faculty, staff, and student populations, and two members of the Society of Jesus.
More information about the search committee, its members, the search process and the timeline will be sent to the SLU community and posted on the presidential search website on April 1. At that time, the search website will also be updated with opportunities for you to share input – through a community survey, at listening sessions, or by sending a confidential email to WittKieffer, the executive search firm that will be supporting the search process.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, please join me in thanking President Pestello and Dr. Fran Pestello for their devotion to ¶¶Òõpro and their historic efforts to uphold and advance the mission of this institution.
Sincerely,
Joseph Conran, ’67 ’70
Chairman of the Board of Trustees