For immediate release: May 5, 2021

LTU president announces retirement; national search for successor planned

SOUTHFIELD -- Virinder K, Moudgil has announced his plans to retire as president and CEO of Lawrence Technological University (www.ltu.edu) effective at the end of 2021 or when a successor is named.

Moudgil has served as LTU’s seventh president since July 1, 2012, overseeing a period of significant growth and improvement in campus facilities, programs, fundraising, and community outreach. He operated under the mantra that “it’s all about the students,” and has led faculty and his management team to advance programs and services always focused on that goal.

Expansion of Lawrence Tech facilities during Moudgil’s tenure included a growing emphasis on residential and campus life through construction of a third and fourth student residence hall and a new multisport outdoor stadium. The A. Alfred Taubman Engineering, Architecture, and Life Sciences Complex opened on campus in September 2016. LTU’s Detroit Center for Design and Technology was created in midtown Detroit.

Moudgil also led the purchase of five acres adjacent to the campus that included a 92,000 sq. ft. two-building office complex, now called LTU’s Enterprise Center. It houses Lawrence Tech’s Centrepolis Accelerator, developed in 2020 in partnership with the city of Southfield. The Accelerator provides opportunities for students right on campus to intern and partner with manufacturing start-ups, entrepreneurs, and others, even as it helps those organizations bring fresh ideas and innovations to life.  

Over a dozen new academic programs launched during Moudgil’s presidency, including a Bachelor of Science in nursing that will graduate its first students May 8. New programs being developed include master’s degrees in physician assistance, healthcare administration, and artificial intelligence, and a bachelor’s in data science. Other degree programs recently launched or reimaged include a bachelor’s in game art, and in industrial, transportation, and interior design.

The salaries of Lawrence Tech graduates are among the top 11 percent of all American colleges,  according to PayScale.com. The Brookings Institution places LTU among the nation's top five value-added universities.

The largest gifts in LTU’s history, $20 million from former LTU student Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft, and $11 million from former student and real estate developer A. Alfred Taubman, were received early in Moudgil’s tenure and were used to build the Taubman Complex on campus and create the Marburger STEM Center for improving the teaching of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math in order to interest young people in these burgeoning and lucrative career fields.

Moudgil also led or championed research and scholarship traditions at LTU, emphasizing undergraduate basic and applied research and strengthening global outreach. The number of LTU athletic teams has nearly doubled to over 30, and include football, which returned to LTU after a hiatus of 72 years.

“Dr. Moudgil has provided extraordinary service to Lawrence Technological University during a unique period in higher education and for our state and nation overall,” said Douglas Ebert, chairman of LTU’s Board of Trustees. “That LTU and our students and faculty progressed even as the COVID-19 pandemic upended nearly all aspects of university operations and how coursework is delivered, as well as all other aspects of student life, athletics, and much more, is testimony to his commitment and that of his team to pursue steady progress and academic accomplishment.”

Ebert will appoint a national presidential search committee representing trustees, faculty, staff, students, and alumni of the 3,000-student private university.

Prior to Lawrence Tech, from 2001-12 Moudgil served as senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at Oakland University, where he co-chaired the steering committee that developed the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine.

His education includes the Harvard Institute for Educational Management, 2006; post-doctoral work in molecular medicine at the Mayo Clinic, 1973-76; and a PhD in Zoology (Biochemistry) from Banaras Hindu University in India, 1972. He was a visiting scientist at universities in Yugoslavia and France, and a consultant with the United Nations.

Moudgil’s current or recent board affiliations include Henry Ford Hospital and Health Network; vice president, Michigan Education Trust (MET and MESP 529); Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce; Detroit Economic Club; Detroit Zoological Society; and Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Michigan. He was the 2017 chair of the Association of Independent Technological Universities Inc. (AITU), comprising most of America’s leading private technological universities.

Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, is a private university founded in 1932 that offers nearly 100 programs through the doctoral level in its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Business and Information Technology, and Engineering. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 11 percent of universities for the salaries of its graduates, and U.S. News and World Report lists it in the top tier of best Midwestern universities. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 107-acre campus include more than 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.

# # #