Don Shrubshell photo

University of Missouri System curator Don Walsworth, right, looks out over the crowd with Gary Forsee and his wife, Sherry Snell Forsee, yesterday at Reynolds Alumni Center after the announcement that Forsee will be the next president of the university system.

The word "leader" came up a lot during yesterday’s introduction of Gary Forsee as the University of Missouri’s next president.

During his initial public appearance, held at Reynolds Alumni Center, the former Sprint Nextel CEO was showered with praise and called upon to bring to the university leadership and vision.

"Wow, what a day," began Don Walsworth, chairman of the UM System’s Board of Curators. "The Board of Curators has identified a great leader."

Earlier in the day, university curators voted unanimously to appoint Forsee as the system’s 22nd president, culminating an 11-month presidential search to replace Elson Floyd, who left in April to head Washington State University. Gordon Lamb has been serving as interim president, and he will stay on for a year as UM executive vice president to help with the transition. Forsee begins his job on Feb. 18 and will earn $400,000 a year, plus up to $100,000 in annual incentive pay that is deferred until the end of his three-year contract.

In remarks after his introduction, Forsee echoed the leader theme, paraphrasing Ralph Waldo Emerson: "An organization is in fact a reality of the length and shadow of its leader."

Forsee, 57, brings with him 35 years of telecommunications experience. A Missouri native, Forsee was born in Kansas City and grew up in Moberly, St. Joseph and Cape Girardeau, where he graduated from high school. He earned a civil engineering degree from UM-Rolla in 1972 and in 2005 was awarded an honorary doctorate in engineering. He currently serves on Rolla’s Board of Trustees and is co-chair of Lamb’s "Missouri 100," a group of influential alums across the state who are called on to tell the UM story.

Curators were unequivocal in their praise for Forsee. "I can tell you that the entire board feels very, very good about this decision," said curator Bo Fraser of Columbia.

Forsee’s statements yesterday indicated he knows he has the full support of curators and that not all of the faculty are on board. "I come into this with a lot to learn. I need to go back to school, if you will," he said.

Forsee is credited with engineering the $35 billion merger of Sprint and Nextel in 2005. He headed the combined company until October, when he resigned under pressure during a time of customer defections and weak earnings.

Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia, who attended a reception yesterday after Forsee’s introduction, said he deserved a chance and already has made a good start. "I think coming from the private sector will probably appeal to a lot of the people of the leadership down in Jefferson City," he said. "I’m particularly pleased that he’s going to keep Gordon Lamb on."

At a news conference, Forsee was met with tough questions on whether embryonic stem cell research should be restricted on moral grounds and on his tenure at Sprint, where he is accused of cooperating with the U.S. government’s domestic spying effort by handing over thousands of private phone records.

"I am a strong supporter of freedom of research. I am a strong supporter of academic freedom. I am a strong supporter of the resolution that the curators passed and reinforced last fall that indicated support for stem cell research," Forsee said.

"There’s going to be a lot of time required for trust to be established and, as I’ve said, the burden falls on me. I believe in the leadership being on the bottom of the funnel as opposed to being on the top. I believe the leader has the responsibility to support, in this case, our most important aspects of what we’re about, and that’s our faculty and our students."

In that effort, Lamb said he was happy to stay on help Forsee build that trust so the new president could concentrate on his most impending challenge: garnering the favor of the Missouri General Assembly. "We see eye-to-eye on what has to happen for the university," Lamb said.

Forsee still collects on his $21.3 million-a-year contract and $54 million severance package for agreeing to step down from Sprint. Asked how the multimillionaire with a bachelor’s degree will be received by faculty demoralized by low salaries, Lamb said, "If they meet him, they’ll relate to him immediately. Faculty quickly put these things behind them."

When asked why he is leaving the boardroom for the classroom, Forsee said he wants use his skills to make a great institution better: "I have a passion for this state; I have a passion for this institution. I’ve been involved in this institution and, frankly, it’s a chance to give something back."

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