MILWAUKEE—The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents selected new leaders on Friday (June 10), electing David G. Walsh of Madison as president and Mark J. Bradley of Wausau as vice president.

Walsh will succeed Toby E. Marcovich of Superior, who served as a Regent for eight years and as president since 2003. Walsh began his service as a UW Regent in 2003 and previously served as vice president of the Board.  He was elected in a unanimous vote at Friday’s meeting.

“These are difficult economic times for Wisconsin,” Walsh told the board after its vote. “Our challenge as a Board is to communicate to the people of Wisconsin and the Legislature the value and contributions of the UW System.  We need to initiate a constructive dialogue with the many stakeholders of our institutions and tell a compelling story of how our public university system is an indispensable economic asset to Wisconsin.”

Walsh is a partner in the Madison law office of Foley & Lardner, a national law firm where he was a member of the management committee from 1994-2001. He specializes in business transactions, estate planning and telecommunications law. He is a 1965 graduate of UW-Madison, served in the U.S. Navy from 1965-67, and is a Vietnam veteran. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1970.

Walsh serves on the UW HealthStar Advisory Board, the Future Madison Board of Directors, and the UW Athletic Advisory Board. He is a former chair of the UW Business School Advisory Board and received the distinguished Business Alumnus Award from the UW-Madison Business School in 1997.

Walsh also serves on the Board of Directors of National Guardian Life Insurance Company, Madison Newspapers, Inc., Thompson Investment Management, Inc., and Alkar-Rapidpak, Inc. He is a former owner of the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club.

Newly elected vice president Mark J. Bradley is an attorney with the law firm of Ruder, Ware & Michler, LLSC in Wausau. He is a shareholder, member of the Board of Directors and chair of the firm’s Trusts and Estates Practice Group. He has served as chair of the Business and Finance Committee, and as a member of the Executive Committee and the Special Regent Committee for the UW Colleges and UW-Extension Chancellor Search. He is also the Regent representative on the Research Park Board. He previously worked for the UW System as a budget analyst and an assistant to the UW System senior vice president.

Bradley serves on the boards of several foundations, including the B.A. and Esther Greenheck Foundation and director of the Elwyn J. Remington Foundation and the May Family Foundation. He was recently named a member of the Marshfield Clinic National Advisory Council. Bradley is a graduate of UW-Madison, where he also received a law degree.

The board on Friday also unanimously re-elected several other board officers, including Board Secretary Judith A. Temby, Assistant Board Secretary Cheryle Goplin, Trust Officer Deborah Durcan, and Assistant Trust Officers Patricia Brady and Douglas Hoerr.

The board officers will serve one-year terms.

Media Contact

Doug Bradley UW System 608-265-0548