Hogarty Hired as VP for Campus Services

Lisa Hogarty will join Harvard’s central administration in the newly refashioned position of Vice President for Campus Services, the University announced yesterday.

Hogarty will take over an office that has been in flux since former Vice President for Administration Sally H. Zeckhauser stepped down in July 2009.

This year, several functions of the office have been transferred to other areas of the central administration, and streamlining of operations will continue now that a leader has been chosen, Executive Vice President Katherine N. Lapp said earlier this week.

“I think when the choice is made and the person is on board, we’re going to have a really great opportunity to create synergy across service units,” Lapp said prior to the announcement of Hogarty’s appointment.

The University conducted a nationwide search for the position, according to Lapp, who added that each of the final candidates brought insight into how to make the University’s behind-the-scenes operations run more efficiently.

After Hogarty assumes the position in late June, her first priority will be to listen to her new colleagues, she said in an interview with The Crimson.

“During the interview process, I was so impressed with the operational excellence and level of customer service,” Hogarty said. “It’s not so much about streamlining but about, ‘How do we take advantage of these operations to create increased collaboration and coordination among units?’”

Hogarty’s new office will have a broad range of duties across the University, from dining and real estate to transportation and emergency management. Oversight of the Arnold Arboretum and Harvard University Press, formerly in the VPA’s portfolio, were transferred to the Provost’s Office in 2009.Hogarty said that her experience at Columbia University, where she was most recently chief operating officer of the university’s Medical Center, will help her manage these many functions. In her past role as executive vice president for student and administrative services at Columbia, Hogarty oversaw procurement and construction of a new teaching center and undergraduate housing.

Regarding the broad role she will assume at Harvard, Hogarty said teamwork is crucial.

“It’s all about the team that you assemble. My job to coordinate and make sure that people have the resources that they need,” she said.

—Staff writer Elias J. Groll can be reached at egroll@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer William N. White can be reached at wwhite@fas.harvard.edu.