Mark Spiro leaves to become a vice president at Colgate University

By Joe Wilensky

Early in his career, Mark Spiro struggled with a decision -- whether he wanted to be a scientist or an academic administrator.

"I guess it's clear which path I chose," said Spiro, an associate dean for Cornell's College of Engineering who is leaving Cornell after a 22-year career to become a vice president at Colgate University.

But Spiro may have gotten the best of both worlds. He began his career at Cornell as a technical assistant in the Division of Nutritional Sciences and then as manager of operations and assistant director for the Department of Chemistry; he later moved to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences research office as an executive officer, and then to the College of Engineering as an assistant dean and then as an associate dean.

For the past few years, most of his energy was devoted to leading faculty, administrators and building professionals through the conceptual and design phases for Duffield Hall, a $62.5 million project.

Spiro, 50, earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, in 1972, and he received his master's degree in audiology from Ithaca College the next year. He subsequently received an undergraduate degree in chemistry there and later completed his doctoral coursework in educational economics at Cornell. He began his career as a research audiologist in Halifax, Nova Scotia, but also was trained in the burgeoning field of computer programming.

He came to Cornell in 1978 at the age of 28, working as a technical assistant in nutritional biochemistry before being hired by the chemistry department. He gained experience in managing land-grant funds and database management in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and was hired by former Dean William Streett as the director of administration for the College of Engineering in 1987.

"I was very fortunate that Bill had hired Mark, because when you become dean, you need a really world-class individual as your right-hand person," said John Hopcroft, who succeeded Streett as dean in 1994. "Mark has an unparalleled ability to seize a large, complex problem, take it apart, analyze the pieces and put it back together again to solve the problem."

Streett said Spiro has a "remarkable ability to focus his energies on a difficult project and wrestle with it until it is solved."

For instance, Spiro helped improve salaries for associate professors by analyzing the college's salary rank relative to its peers and rebudgeting college funds. Streett said Spiro also turned the college's budget records into a computerized budget system and tackled difficult issues regarding space allocation within the college.

Hopcroft said Spiro did an "extraordinary job in hiring and developing staff," pointing out that several members of the present college executive staff had been recruited by Spiro.

Since 1996, Spiro has been involved with the Duffield Hall project -- a tremendous facility that will bring many of the college's researchers and the nanotech-nology and nanobiotechnology departments together under one roof.

"The College of Engineering, with an annual budget of about $160 million and about 13 buildings, is larger than many small colleges and universities in this country," Spiro said. "I think my responsibilities over the past decade in the College of Engineering have prepared me well to move on to an executive level position in another institution.

"I grew up as an administrator in the College of Engineering," Spiro said. "I had the opportunity to work with an extraordinary staff, a wonderful faculty, including a group of very committed and talented chairs and associate deans, and I have just thoroughly enjoyed my experience here."

This article has been abbreviated from one that was written for the summer edition of Cornell Engineering Magazine.