A top administrator has announced his plans to retire from Penn State.
David Gray, who has been senior vice president for finance and business since February 2012, intends to retire in August 2020, according to a university news release.
Overseeing the university’s financial performance for a $6.8 billion budget, Gray’s responsibilities are far-reaching, with oversight of units including auxiliary and business services, the corporate controller’s office, ethics and compliance, diversity and inclusion, information technology, investment management, physical plant and university police and public safety. He also heads financial and business management at all university campuses and sits on the Penn State Health board of directors.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and master’s in public administration from Penn State and returned to his alma mater after serving as a senior vice president at the University of Massachusetts.
“It has been an honor and privilege to serve my alma mater these past eight years,” Gray said. “We have made tremendous progress as an institution over that time span, and I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish. There is much unfinished work in front of us, but I know that Penn State is in good hands moving forward.”
Gray has led a number of projects that have ‘helped to fundamentally transform Penn State,” university President Eric Barron said. A years-long effort to replace outdated computing systems included the introduction of student information system LionPATH, human resources and payroll management program WorkLion and the budgeting and financial information system SIMBA.
“What David managed to accomplish with the changeover in these information technology systems help set Penn State on modern, sustainable path in terms of the way the university conducts business,” Barron said.
He led the development of the university’s most recent multi-billion dollar five-year capital plan to modernize campus facilities and address a maintenance backlog. Gray also has been instrumental in multiple major sustainability initiatives to reduce Penn State’s greenhouse gas emissions and incorporate renewable energy.
Gray chairs the Penn State Investment Council, and during his time at the university the school’s endowment has grown to more than $4 billion, about double from when he arrived.
Arriving at Penn State three months after the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke, Gray stepped into a university in turmoil.
‘Within months after my arrival, the Freeh report was issued, Sandusky was convicted, the NCAA levied its draconian sanctions against the university, and we were just dealing with a very profound crisis situation,’ he told Town&Gown in 2018. ‘It called upon all of our energy and attention really for two-and-a-half years after I got here. We were focused completely on the stability, bringing the family back together, and re-stabilizing this institution. But if there’s something that has amazed me in the six-and-a-half years I’ve been here, it’s the resiliency of this institution, the Penn State family, if you will, that they have had an incredible capacity to take a very difficult situation and move forward from it to build an even stronger institution.’
Gray also chaired Penn State’s United Way campaigns the past two years. Last year, he and his wife, Centre County Administrator Margaret Gray, committed $210,000 to create the first graduate scholarship in the university’s new master of public policy program.
Penn State will conduct a national search for Gray’s replacement.
“David’s leadership and dedication have been invaluable in making sure the university is a responsible steward of its fiscal resources. His efforts have helped to further strengthen Penn State’s financial footing as the University plans and prepares for the challenges of the future,” Barron said.
“To try to sum up his impact on Penn State in a single sentence would not do justice to his long list of accomplishments or the critical role he has played in setting the University’s strategic direction. The work he has done, including helping the university to become more efficient with its resources, embarking on ambitious programs to modernize the way we do business and developing the capital plan, will be felt across Penn State for decades to come.”
