News Release

Photo URL: See link below.

Evans named executive director of Carolina North

CHAPEL HILL - Dr. John P. Evans, a longtime University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty member and administrator who has helped oversee a variety of special projects, will serve as executive director of Carolina North, Chancellor James Moeser said today (July 26).

Evans, currently the Hettleman Professor of Business in the Kenan-Flagler Business School, will begin the new post Aug. 1. The chancellor announced the move during a meeting of the UNC Board of Trustees Buildings and Grounds Committee. He said the university needed one person to focus entirely upon Carolina North issues and coordinate the efforts of many campus contributors to this work since the project is so important to the university.

"Jack will be a great advocate for Carolina North," Moeser said. "Jack has close ties with the community and a distinguished, sustained record of leadership on campus. He shares my belief that Carolina North represents the future of the University and is our highest priority. I am grateful for his willingness to embrace this new challenge to create opportunities for amazing discovery and innovation."

As executive director, with an initial appointment of two years, Evans will take on the overall daily responsibility for leading the planning and implementation of Carolina North, the new campus planned on university property two miles north of the current campus in Chapel Hill.

In the short term, that responsibility will involve coordinating the university's participation in the Leadership Advisory Committee, on which Evans was already serving. Moeser created the advisory committee earlier this year to get community input on Carolina North from as broad a range of interests as possible. The committee was asked to develop principles that will guide the university in preparing plans for submission to the local governing bodies as part of the regulatory process.

Ken Broun, Henry Brandis professor of law at UNC and former Chapel Hill mayor, is facilitating the advisory committee, which includes representatives from the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Orange County, EmPOWERment, the State Department of Transportation, the governor's office, the Orange Water and Sewer Authority, and the university.

Moeser said the most important part of Evans' new job will begin when the Leadership Advisory Committee finishes its work and issues its final report. Then he will lead the university's efforts to take that community feedback into account as proposals are developed for zoning and development plan applications to the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

Evans will report to Moeser and work closely with Tony Waldrop, vice chancellor for research and economic development, and David Perry, interim vice chancellor for finance and administration, on the overall planning for Carolina North.

Evans, a faculty member since 1970, has been closely involved with the university's planning for Carolina North over the past several years. He has previously served as special assistant to the chancellor on Carolina North. He coordinated those efforts with a university consultant to examine potential development options for the property. Evans also was a co-convener of a campus advisory committee on the Carolina North tract that was created by Moeser's predecessor, Michael Hooker, and continued under Interim Chancellor William O. McCoy.

He served more than a year as interim vice chancellor for finance and administration. He was dean of the Kenan-Flagler Business School from 1978 to 1987 and interim dean in 1997 and also in 2003. He will continue for two more years as Carolina's faculty representative to the Atlantic Coast Conference and the National Collegiate Athletics Association.

-- 30 --

Photo URL: http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/faculty/search/Hiimages/evansj.jpg

Contact: News Services staff, (919) 962-2091