Kate Murphy, The Enquirer, and Danielle Lerner, Courier-Journal

UPDATE: It's official. Neville Pinto will be the 30th president of the University of Cincinnati. Pinto, 58, will be hired this morning by the UC trustees in a special meeting. Pinto is on the UC campus this morning.

“Neville Pinto returns to UC with a remarkable record in research, innovation, the development of industry partnerships, academic excellence and diversity. He has established a stellar record as a collaborator who can work with community and corporate partners. He will be a great asset as UC launches our new 1819 Innovation Hub,” said Robert E. Richardson Jr., chairman of UC’s Board of Trustees and chairman of the university’s Presidential Search Committee. The innovation hub will be in a former Sears store in Avondale that currently under renovation.

“We are also thrilled to bring him home to the university and the city that he and his family have loved for so long," Richardson said in a news release.

As the acting president of the University of Louisville, Pinto led a metropolitan research university with an enrollment of 22,000 students in 11 colleges and schools on three campuses and a downtown Health Sciences Center.

As U of L's engineering school dean, Pinto expanded enrollment, initiated the development of a 39-acre research park near the engineering college and built stronger ties to GE. He also led efforts to encourage GE to bring its FirstBuild microfactory to the UofL campus. FirstBuild is a new-product accelerator that rapidly transforms ideas for new products into prototypes for testing. In effect, the center throws open the doors of innovation to anyone with good ideas and gets those good ideas out to market quickly. One of its recent successes is the Opal countertop ice maker.



The Enquirer will continue to update this story.

ORIGINAL STORY: University of Louisville interim President Neville Pinto has been chosen as the next president of the University of Cincinnati, three sources knowledgeable of the situation confirmed to the Courier-Journal on Friday.

The UC Board of Trustees is holding a special meeting to vote on a new leader 11 a.m. Saturday in the main atrium of the UC College-Conservatory of Music.

It will be a homecoming for Pinto, who spent 26 years at UC. He was a professor of engineering and dean of the graduate school at UC before heading to Louisville in 2011 to head the J.B. Speed School of Engineering. A product of academia, Pinto earned a doctorate in chemical engineering from Pennsylvania State. His administrative experience includes about 10 years as a vice provost and dean at the two universities. He was also served as interim provost and interim president at U of L.

U of L spokesman John Karman on Friday said he was aware of the reports but could not confirm nor deny Pinto's new appointment. UC board chairman Rob Richardson Jr. and university spokesman Greg Vehr would not confirm or deny that Pinto was selected.

The Enquirer reported that some sources said former Procter & Gamble CEO Bob McDonald, who currently leads the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, was a leading candidate, but it was unclear who else was in the running.

If approved, Pinto will replace former UC president Santa Ono, who abruptly left halfway through his 10-year contract in June to lead the University of British Columbia. The six-month search process to find his replacement has largely been kept secret.

The board met privately for several hours Tuesday morning to discuss a personnel matter. That meeting came just two days after the university's presidential search committee also met behind closed doors.

UC board chairman Rob Richardson Jr. is leading the committee and has said UC's process was intended to be open and transparent. However, all discussion of individual candidates has been confidential and it doesn't appear a list of finalists will be released before the announcement. Richardson has said that confidentiality is needed to ensure the best candidates apply.

Pinto was named acting president in July after James Ramsey resigned. Pinto's departure from U of L comes a week after the university was put on probation for accreditation issues, a sanction Pinto termed "very disappointing." U of L was also hit with sanctions from the NCAA in October following a 13-month investigation.

Previously, Pinto served as provost and had been the dean of the engineering school and a professor of chemical engineering. He was named interim executive vice president and provost in May 2015 by Ramsey, who said at the time that Pinto is "passionate about teaching students in new ways."

At U of L, Pinto earned a $655,000 salary – $480,000 in academic base pay and a stipend of $175,000. He requested not to receive bonuses and deferred compensation, according to the Courier-Journal.

It's unclear what Pinto's potential contract with UC will include.

As president, Ono earned an annual salary of $525,000 plus additional compensation, including a housing stipend, a car and an annual performance bonus (which he consistently turned down). Beverly Davenport earned $625,000 per year as UC's interim president, plus the perks. She served as UC's provost for three years before taking on that role.

The UC presidential search committee, which is comprised of university trustees, students, faculty and community members, interviewed potential candidates before making a recommendation to the board. That recommendation will be considered Saturday.

Executive search firm Witt/Kieffer managed UC's recruitment effort on behalf of the search committee. The Enquirer has filed a public records request with UC seeking documents related to the presidential search including the list of candidates for the job.