Ross, a 60-year-old lawyer and former North Carolina Superior Court judge, has served at Davidson, a selective, Presbyterian-related school of about 1,700 students, since 2007. In his new position, he will lead a university system with 17 campuses and about 220,000 students across the state.
Previously, Ross also has served as director of the Administrative Office of the Courts in North Carolina and as director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, a major charitable organization based in Winston-Salem. He also led a statewide sentencing commission in the early 1990s, which proposed sentencing reform guidelines that were adopted by the state legislature.
In selecting him to lead the university system, the University’s Board of Governors cited Ross’s extensive record of public service and his familiarity with the state’s political and economic systems.
