wfn.org | Robert Oliver Elected President of ELCA's Augustana College

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

January 19, 2006  

Robert Oliver Elected President of ELCA's Augustana College
06-007-BC*/JB

     CHICAGO (ELCA) - The board of trustees of Augustana College,
Sioux Falls, S.D., elected Robert C. Oliver Jan. 14 to serve as
its 23rd president. Oliver, a retired bank president, is
currently a faculty member and department chair at the college.
     "I want to commend the presidential search committee for
coordinating a very efficient process and thank the Augustana
Community for their feedback in selecting our new president,"
said Jane Zaloudek, Berkeley, Calif., chair of the college board
of trustees. "We are extremely pleased with the selection of Rob
Oliver. We are excited to have Rob as the leader of Augustana and
have utmost confidence in his ability to enhance Augustana's
future as a college of the church."
     Oliver, 52, associate professor and chair of the Augustana
Department of Business, will begin his new duties Aug. 1.  He
succeeds Dr. Bruce Halverson, who announced last summer his
decision to retire effective July 31.
     "We have to reach out and tell the Augustana story, and it's
a wonderful story," said Oliver, a past chair of the college
board of trustees and 12-year board member.
     Prior to his appointment to the Augustana faculty, Oliver
was the Southern District president of Wells Fargo Bank of South
Dakota. His banking career spanned 27 years, all with Wells
Fargo.
     "My experience as a leader of a premier financial
institution in the Sioux Falls market for a number of years has
provided me with the skills of leadership and management that I
believe can assist Augustana in its future opportunities," he
said.
     Oliver majored in economics at the University of South
Dakota, Vermillion, and graduated in 1975. He received a master
of business administration degree from the university in 1977 and
attended the University of Delaware's Stonier Graduate School of
Banking in 1988 and 1990-91.
     Oliver served as an adjunct instructor at the University of
South Dakota School of Business and Graduate School of Business.
He was an instructor with the Sioux Falls chapters of the
American Institute of Banking and the American Institute of
Financial Education.
     Oliver serves currently as a board member of Communication
Services for the Deaf, a volunteer with Sioux Empire United Way
and a member of the Sioux Falls Downtown Rotary Club.  He is the
past chair of the Sioux Empire United Way board of trustees, the
Civic Fine Arts Center board of directors, the Avera McKennan
Hospital board of trustees, and the Volunteers of America board
of directors.
     Oliver and his wife, Angie, are the parents of two
daughters, Andrea and Laura.
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     Information about Augustana College is at
http://www.augie.edu on the Web.

*Bruce Conley is director of news information, Augustana College.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
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