Chapman University has chosen one of its own, former law school dean and fundraiser Matt Parlow, to be its 14th president.
Parlow is succeeding Daniele Struppa, who said in May that he would retire in late 2025, ending a nine-year stint leading the private university in Orange.
Chapman’s trustees ended their nationwide search for a new president with a homegrown candidate.
Parlow, a 49-year-old Los Angeles native who got his law degree at Yale University, spent 12 years at Chapman as a law professor and then law dean, with a six-year gap in between teaching law at Marquette University.
In the past three years, he’s managed Chapman’s fundraising campaigns, including a new effort called Inspire, which has raised $400 million, according to Chapman.
“He’ll be a great leader for Chapman,” said James Doti, who served as the university’s president for 25 years and is now president emeritus and professor emeritus of economics. “It’s great that we had this kind of talent to promote from within, where he understands the unique culture of the institution.”
Doti worked with Parlow on the recent fundraiser, which is looking to raise $500 million to bolster research and academic programs.“I was impressed with how he built a donor support team,” Doti said. “Chapman will be in good hands.”
The university in its announcement said it was looking for a candidate “who is innovative, collaborative and passionate … with a track record of teaching.”
Parlow, the trustees said, “exemplifies these qualities of transformative leadership.”
He will take the helm Sept. 2 as Chapman looks to grow even more and move beyond the controversy surrounding another of its former law school deans, John Eastman.
Eastman, who helped orchestrate President Donald Trump’s effort to remain in office after the 2020 election, continues to fight criminal indictments in two states.
One of the trustees who helped appoint Parlow is Wylie Aitken, a long-time trial lawyer in Orange County. Aitken said Tuesday that there “is no nexis between Parlow and Eastman other than the fact that they were both deans of the law school.”
“Matt is a whole different individual who has done a great deal of good work, for the school and the community,” Aitken said Tuesday.
He believes Parlow is the best candidate to help Chapman connect with prospective students while protecting the student body enrolled now.
“The cost of education has reached a point where it’s not necessarily considered a value for the students or their parents, and it’s one of the things we’re in tune with at Chapman and something I know Matt is concerned with as well,” Aitken said. “I also know he’ll be committed to protecting our students, including our DACA students, given the stated goals of the incoming administration. He’s the right person in the right place for that.”
Aitken added that Parlow might focus on landing money for Chapman that’s not connected to tuition. “He’s the right person to negotiate what’s going to happen to research funds, and to continue our upward spiral in that area.”
One peculiar part of Parlow’s first roles as president, Aitken said, might include a lot of silence.
“He’s going to go on a listening tour,” Aitken said. “We care about students, and the parents of students, both of whom are our customers. So we want to know what they think. Matt is very personable, very likable. And he’ll be a great leader for us in that part of our endeavor.”
Parlow in the university’s announcement said he was proud to follow in the footsteps of Struppa and former president James Doti.
“Over the last 30 years, we’ve transformed this university in ways that are the envy of all of higher education,” he said. Parlow is married to another Chapman educator, Janine Kim, the Wylie A. Aitken professor of Law, Race and Social Justice.
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