PROVIDENCE – Mim L. Runey took the reins at Johnson & Wales University Tuesday, becoming the school’s third chancellor in its 104-year history, during a ceremonial installation at Providence Performing Arts Center.
Runey, who has served as Johnson & Wales Providence campus president and chief operating officer since 2011, succeeds John J. Bowen, who retired at the end of 2018. Johnson & Wales’ first chancellor, Morris Gaebe, served from 1989 to 2010.
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“I am forever grateful for the leaders who came before me,” Runey said during the installation ceremony Tuesday. “Just like our students, those men and women had grit. They figured out how to make things happen. Now it is our turn to begin a new era at Johnson & Wales.”
Speakers included Gov. Gina M. Raimondo and Johnson & Wales Chairman James Hance Jr., operating executive of The Carlyle Group, based in Washington, D.C.
According to JWU, Raimondo remarked that the school’s founders, Gertrude Johnson and Mary Wales, “would be especially proud to know that a woman of Mim’s vision and leadership is at the helm of the university they founded.”
Runey joined JWU 29 years ago at its Charleston, S.C., campus, and in 2006 moved north to serve as the senior vice president of institutional planning at the Providence campus.
She holds a doctorate in law and policy from Northeastern University, a master’s degree in management from Webster University and a bachelor’s degree in English from Clemson University.
William Hamilton is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Hamilton@PBN.com.
