VCU news

By Pamela DiSalvo Lepley

Virginia Commonwealth University President Eugene P. Trani today informed the VCU Board of Visitors that Paul W. Timmreck, senior vice president for Finance and Administration, intends to retire from his position in the summer of 2006.

Timmreck has served as VCU’s chief finance and administrative officer since joining VCU in 1996.  His office provides management and oversight of the operating functions of the university, including the budget, facilities, human resources, police and security and administrative information technology.

In making the announcement, Trani credited Timmreck with dramatic improvements in financial and administrative services provided to the university community.

“Paul’s advice and guidance have ensured that the university operates in a fiscally sound manner demonstrated by the introduction of long-range financial plans and a debt capacity model to direct the financing of our building program,” Trani said. 

In particular, the VCU president praised Timmreck for guiding VCU through a national recession and state budget cuts that reduced the amount of state support to the university by 25 percent.  Despite the budget cuts, Trani said, VCU was able to enhance services to students, faculty and staff, affiliated organizations and neighboring communities, ranging from implementation of web-based tools to improve administrative operations, to the enhancement of food service offerings on campus and expansion of community policing initiatives. 

“No area has undergone more significant improvement during Paul’s tenure than VCU’s physical infrastructure,” said VCU Rector Edward H. Bersoff, Ph.D.  “Paul’s leadership was instrumental in the implementation of the university’s 1996 Master Site Plan, which involved more than $1 billion in construction over the past 10 years.” 

Specifically, Timmreck oversaw the development of facilities important to VCU’s transition to a residential university, including the West Broad Street student apartments, the Student Commons additions, the construction of a nationally acclaimed student dining facility and improvements designed to create an inviting and pleasant campus environment such as the pedestrian walkways at Shafer Court and Linden Plaza. 

Just after arriving at VCU, Timmreck secured $28 million for a new life sciences building and $13 million for an overhaul of the major building systems in Sanger Hall, a major research facility at the VCU Medical Center.  Recently, he guided the land acquisition for the development of new buildings for the Schools of Engineering and Business in the Monroe Park Campus Addition.

Trani also recognized Timmreck for his leadership in implementing an emergency management response capability at the university. 

“Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Paul was quick to recognize the need for a more structured process for responding to campus emergencies and provided strong leadership in overseeing the development of our emergency preparedness plan,” Trani said.  “He went on to direct VCU’s incident response team and to serve as our chief spokesperson during Hurricane Isabel, the devastating fire in spring 2004 of a private apartment building that was under construction on West Broad Street and during Tropical Storm Gaston.”

While at VCU, Timmreck also has served both city and state governments.  He headed up a review of the City of Richmond’s financial condition at the request of Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, and served on Gov. Mark Warner’s Transition Finance Committee.  In March 2001, The Virginia General Assembly appointed Timmreck to the Virginia Retirement System Board, a $43 billion enterprise.  This spring, Warner appointed him chair of the board. 

Trani said that Timmreck’s successor will be recruited to a new position of Vice President of Finance, which the university expects to fill this coming fall.  He said the transition period will enable Timmreck to oversee the completion of the first two phases of an $8 million effort to replace VCU’s core administrative computing systems in finance, human resources and student registration, as well as initial construction of new buildings for the Schools of Engineering and Business on the Monroe Park Campus Addition.

Prior to coming to VCU, Timmreck served as Secretary of Finance under Virginia governors George Allen and L. Douglas Wilder.  During the Wilder administration, Virginia was twice recognized as the best fiscally managed state in the nation.  Prior to serving as Secretary of Finance, Timmreck was the state budget director in the administrations of governors Baliles and Robb and staff director of the Senate Finance Committee, the first person to hold such a position.  Timmreck came to Virginia in 1975 to take a position with the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.