David D. Arnold today announced that he will be leaving AUC in December, after serving more than seven years as its president. During his tenure, Arnold oversaw the construction of the university's new campus in New Cairo and the move of the university's undergraduate and graduate programs to its New Cairo campus in 2008. Arnold has been named president of The Asia Foundation, a nonprofit organization which supports programs in Asia that help improve governance, law, and civil society; women's empowerment; economic reform and development; and international relations. Based in San Francisco, The Asia Foundation has field offices in 18 countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in Washington, D.C.
During Arnold's tenure as president, in addition to the construction of the new campus, he spearheaded AUC's $125 million fundraising campaign, the largest in AUC history. Numerous academic initiatives were also launched, including the establishment of three new schools, new undergraduate and graduate programs in the sciences and engineering, as well as new graduate programs in law, education, gender studies, digital journalism and refugee studies. In addition, the university's continuing education programs have expanded by more than 50 percent and several new scholarship programs were introduced.
"My tenure as AUC's president," Arnold said, "has been extremely rewarding -- both personally and professionally. During the past seven years, we have literally transformed the university, not only by moving to a spectacular new campus, but by strengthening our academic programs, expanding our community outreach, and increasing scholarship support for financially needy students. The satisfaction of being part of this historic era of AUC's development far exceeds anything I could have imagined when I first joined the university in 2003."
During Arnold's time at AUC, the university also dramatically increased its partnerships with prominent universities around the world, including Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge and the University of Pennsylvania. AUC was the only university chosen in the region to partner with the recently established King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, where it is collaborating on research in desert development technology, nanotechnology, and Red Sea marine ecology.
In addition, a number of new scholarship and fellowship opportunities were created under Arnold's tenure, including the Leadership for Education and Development program, which is funded by the US Agency for International Development and the Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation, and offers full scholarships to two students from the public schools – one male and one female -- from each of Egypt's 29 governorates. Similar opportunities for students in the Arab Region were expanded with the Tomorrow's Leaders Scholarship Program, co-funded by the U.S. State Department's Middle East Partnership Initiative, which will provide scholarships for students from the Middle East and North Africa.
Arnold informed the AUC Board of Trustees of his resignation at its May meeting in New York at which time a search committee was established and has already begun working to identify and recruit his successor. Mr. Arnold's appointment as president and CEO of The Asia Foundation was announced this week in San Francisco, and will take effect from January 1, 2011.
Prior to joining AUC, Arnold served for six years as executive vice president of the Institute of International Education, the world's largest and oldest nonprofit educational exchange organization. From 1984 to 1997, he worked for the Ford Foundation, serving initially as its first program officer in the field of governance and later as the foundation's representative for India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Arnold began his public service career in 1975 in his home state of Michigan as a program budget analyst with the Michigan Department of Labor. He moved to Washington, D.C. in 1977 to join the National Governors Association, where he handled intergovernmental relations in the areas of employment, housing and economic development. He later served as executive director of the Coalition of Northeastern Governors, a regional think tank and policy institute serving the northeast region of the United States.
