SOUTHFIELD — Douglas E. Ebert, former COO of the Cranbrook Educational Community, has been named to succeed Lloyd E. Reuss as chair of the board of trustees at Lawrence Technological University.
Ebert, a trustee of the private, 4,500-student university since 2006, and chair of the board’s finance committee, previously spent 33 years in the financial services industry. He was also chair of LTU’s presidential search committee, which was comprised of trustees, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and others that in 2012 selected Virinder K. Moudgil as Lawrence Tech’s seventh president and CEO.
In addition to Cranbrook, where he served from 2002 to 2008, Ebert held a number of positions with the former Michigan National Corp. and Michigan National Bank between 1993 and 2001, including vice chairman of the board, president, CEO and COO. Earlier, he was senior executive vice president of the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. in New York City, and held other leadership roles with banks and banks in Florida and Indiana.
Ebert has been a trustee of Beaumont Hospital since 2010 and has served on many other community boards, including the American Heart Association Heart Walk, Citizen’s Research Council of Michigan, Detroit Economic Club, Detroit Regional Chamber, The Skillman Foundation, and Trinity-Pawling School. He is a graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts. He and his wife, Linda, and daughter, Ashley, have lived in Michigan for 20 years.
Reuss, a former president of General Motors, has served as an LTU trustee since 1978 and as chairman of the board since 1993. In recognition of his leadership in automotive engineering, manufacturing and management, LTU presented him an honorary Doctor of Business Administration degree in 1991. Reuss will continue on Lawrence Tech’s board for another three years.
Reuss’ other community and higher education roles have included serving as executive dean of Focus: HOPE’s Center for Advanced Technologies, as a trustee of Vanderbilt and the Louisville Theological Seminary, and a member of the Board of Visitors at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He is a trustee of the Cranbrook Educational Community, former chairman of the
board of the Cranbrook Institute of Science, and former vice chairman of the Detroit Symphony. In 1995, Reuss received the Society of Automotive Engineers’ medal of honor for his leadership in technical and educational activities.
During Reuss’ tenure, LTU has raised more than $150 million through philanthropy. Lawrence Tech is in the final phases of a major capital campaign that already has raised approximately $104 million to build a new engineering, life sciences, and architecture building, improve STEM education, and boost scholarship support. An additional $25 million is expected to be raised over the next two years. In April, LTU broke ground for a third student housing center, an $11.6 million project, and on Sept. 19 will break ground for the Taubman Complex and Marburger STEM Center.
Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, is a private university founded in 1932 that offers more than 100 programs through the doctoral level in its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 100 universities for return on undergraduate tuition investment, and highest in the Detroit metropolitan area. Lawrence Tech is also listed in the top tier of
Midwestern universities by U.S. News and World Report and the Princeton Review. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 102-acre campus include over 60 student clubs and organizations and a growing roster of NAIA varsity sports.