Saint Louis University announced on Friday, March 21that it has named Dr. Fred P. Pestello as its next president. The SLU Board of Trustees held a special meeting Thursday evening to elect Pestello as SLU’s 33rd president, according to Board of Trustees President J. Joe Adorjan.

Pestello, the current president of Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., will assume the presidential position on July 1, 2014. He has been serving as president of Le Moyne College since 2008 and has also served as a faculty member and provost at the University of Dayton. He will be the first lay president to ever serve at SLU.

In reference to the SLU men’s basketball win on Thursday evening, Adorjan introduced Pestello as SLU’s new president Friday morning, saying: “We got two victories last night – a new president and a win.” Adorjan touched on some of the many reasons why the Board of Trustees Search Committee found Pestello to be the best choice for SLU’s next president, saying that he is results-oriented, collaborative, an outstanding communicator and interested in shared governments.

Pestello greeted the SLU community by first introducing his family and saying how humbled and honored he is to accept the presidential position.

“If you know this institution, its importance, its mission and its success, how could I not be humbled and honored to be here?” said Pestello.

The new president says that he has been closely following SLU, as he sees the university as a fierce competitor, and talked about how impressed he was with the Search Committee and everything he has seen thus far at SLU. He asked for the SLU community’s help in his transitioning to the new position.

“I am fallible,” said Pestello. “I am but one person…there’s nothing I can do alone.”