Suresh Garimella officially appointed as new UA president. He starts Oct. 1.

Suresh Garimella will begin as the new University of Arizona president on Oct. 1 with a base salary of $810,000.

The Arizona Board of Regents voted to approve Garimella’s appointment and employment contract during a special board meeting Thursday. The agreement lasts through Sept. 30, 2027.

“We have high expectations for both the University of Arizona and its new president. He is a tireless champion for students, and has the experience, vision and steadfast leadership needed to guide our state’s oldest university into the future,” board of regents Chair Cecilia Mata said in a news release Thursday .

Garimella will replace current UA president, Robert Robbins, who announced his resignation in April following months of scrutiny over his role in the UA’s financial crisis with many faculty, staff and students calling for his resignation.

Robbins said he’d step down upon the hiring of a new president or at the end of his current contract, which ends on June 30, 2026. He will stay in his role until Garimella’s October start date, according to the board .

Garimella, a mechanical engineer, has been president of the University of Vermont since 2019 and previously worked as an executive vice president at Purdue University. Garimella will be the 23rd president of the UA.

His new annual base salary of $810,000 is significantly higher than his previous base pay of $484,800 at the University of Vermont.

The soon-to-be UA president may also receive additional bonuses but details of the extra pay will be finalized before Dec. 31 in a separate agreement, according to an executive summary of his employment contract.

The university will provide housing for Garimella and he’ll receive an annual car allowance of $10,000. The university bought Robbins’ home in 2018 for $1.3 million.

Robbins received a 10% pay cut in March after outcry over his leadership of the university in the midst of a financial crisis. Prior to the change, Robbins’ base salary was comparable to Garimella’s at $816,008. Robbins also surrendered $150,000 in individual at-risk compensation and $120,000 in multiple-year performance compensation .

In 2023, Robbins received $132,500 in annual at-risk compensation alone.

Garimella’s hiring was quick and caught many faculty and university leaders off guard.

Leila Hudson, the UA Faculty Senate chair and associate professor of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, said that faculty governance found out about Garimella the day he was publicly introduced as the position’s final candidate. However, she said she was able to meet with Garimella over the phone and they “had a promising conversation in spite of the short notice.”

The hiring process lasted five months and included the UA Presidential Search Committee , an 18-member group of regents and campus community members, which held listening sessions, collected feedback from faculty, staff and students, created a profile for the position and established criteria for potential candidates.

Regent Fred DuVal said the search committee unanimously recommended Garimella. Six of the 18 members were absent for the final vote on July 27, according to records from the board of regents.

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