FLINT — The Baker College System Board of Trustees has announced that Bart Daig, Ph.D., a 25-year veteran of Baker College, will become president and CEO of the Baker College System Jan. 1. He will succeed F. James Cummins, who will retire, having worked for Baker College for nearly 30 years.
Daig previously led Baker College Online and its Center for Graduate Studies and has moved into the role of Baker College chief operating officer until he takes the reins in January. Jill Langen, Ph.D., another seasoned employee of Baker College, succeeded Daig at Baker College Online and Center for Graduate Studies and was named president and chief academic officer May 1.
Daig will assume the presidency of Michigan’s largest private college, which has been greatly shaped by Cummins, who came to Baker College in 1986 as system vice president for finance. Cummins was a young accountant for the CPA firm of Millhouse & Holaly LLP when he was recruited by then-president Ed Kurtz.
Cummins set up the organizational model of the college that now serves approximately 23,000 students at nine physical campuses throughout Michigan; an online campus that offers undergraduate and graduate degrees; and locations for Baker’s Culinary Institute of Michigan, Centers for Transportation Technology, Health Science Center and the Auto/Diesel Institute.
In 1993, Cummins assumed additional responsibilities as president of Baker College of Eastern Michigan while continuing to serve as vice president for finance. He established and grew three new campuses in Port Huron, Clinton Township and Auburn Hills. The campuses became separate subsidiary corporations in 1999 and retained their individual presidents. Cummins continued to serve as system vice president of finance until he succeeded Kurtz as system president and CEO in 2002.
Today, Baker College offers more than 150 career-focused programs, ranging from certificate to doctoral degrees in business administration, computer information systems, education, engineering and technology, health sciences and human services.
Daig, of Goodrich, has been with Baker College for more than 24 years. He joined the admissions office at the Flint campus in 1990 advancing to assistant director. In 1995, he was promoted to Baker College Online and Center for Graduate Studies where he served in multiple positions of increasing responsibility: director of admissions, director and vice president of operations, vice president for academics, and, since 2011, CEO.
Originally from Fenton, Daig holds a doctorate in educational leadership from Touro University International, now Trident University, in Cypress, Calif. He also earned an MBA at Baker College and a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Central Michigan University.
Langen, of Clarkston, has worked as vice president for academics for
Baker College Online and its Center for Graduate Studies since 2011. She joined Baker College in 1998, first serving as an adjunct faculty member at the Auburn Hills campus. In 2005, she was promoted to department chair for marketing and human resource management. In 2008, she moved to the Baker College Center for Graduate Studies as dean of the MBA program.
Langen earned a doctorate in educational leadership at Oakland
University; an MBA, majoring in materials and logistics management, at Michigan State University; and a bachelor’s in business administration, majoring in marketing, at Michigan Technological University.
More at www.baker.edu.