Gov. Abigail Spanberger has named a slate of new appointees to the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors less than two weeks after university President Tim Sands announced plans to step down in the coming months — and amid rumblings that the Republican-dominated board might rush to replace him before Democratic appointees could reshape its membership.
Rector John Rocovich, the leader of the board, said during last week’s board of visitors meeting that he had asked Spanberger if there was anyone she’d like to see on the search committee.
Just days later, her office announced four appointees.
“I look forward to having these highly qualified leaders included on the search committee as Virginia Tech works to identify a successor to President Sands,” Spanberger said in a statement Monday.
Spanberger made her elections “well in advance of July 1 because Rector John Rocovich has committed to placing her appointees on the university’s presidential search committee,” according to the governor’s news release.
“Finding, vetting, and selecting a new university president is the most consequential of a Board’s responsibilities. These searches must be wide-reaching, thorough, and transparent to maintain public trust throughout the process of identifying candidates for this critical position. I know that these appointees will be integral to fulfilling that duty,” Spanberger said.
Nearly all members of Virginia Tech’s current 13-person board were appointed by former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, including Rocovich.
He told reporters at the board of visitors meeting last week that he believes the hiring of a new university president could be done by July 1, when Spanberger’s appointees are slated to begin.
“It might go over into August or September,” he said. “I would expect and hope that once the governor decides who she wants to appoint in July that she’ll tell me and I’ll just put them on the search committee.”
One of Spanberger’s picks, Mehul Sanghani of McLean, has already taken his seat on the board. He was appointed April 10 to finish out the term of Vice Rector Sandra Davis, who died in March and was set to leave the board June 30. This week, the governor appointed him to serve a full term.
It’s not clear whether the three new appointees not already serving on the board will join the search. Rocovich did not respond to a message left at his Roanoke law office Tuesday.
Spanberger’s appointees are:
- Sanghani, who previously served on the board of visitors from 2014 to 2022.
- Sharon Brickhouse Martin, another former member who was appointed by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam in 2019 and served through 2023. Brickhouse Martin is the founder and president of Brickhouse Martin Healthcare Engineering of Centreville and has previously served on the advisory board of the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech and the Industrial Advisory Board of the CEED program for the college.
- Christopher Ramos of Falls Church, a senior account manager at Microsoft, based in the Washington, D.C., metro area. Ramos is an alumnus of Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business and a former advisor for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
- Jane Cady Rathbone of Virginia Beach, principal and CEO emeritus of Hanbury Architects, which regularly works with the School of Architecture + Design.
Three of the appointees are from Northern Virginia, a place where Virginia Tech has invested heavily and expanded in recent years. Sanghani and his wife are also behind a $10 million donation in 2021 that supported the renamed Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics on the university’s Innovation Campus in Alexandria.
The terms of four board members — Rosa Atkins, Edward Baine, Ryan McCarthy and Margaret Ann Smith — expire in June, leaving the possibility of an additional appointment while the presidential search takes place.
Prominent Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and state Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, indicated that they were shocked by Sands’ impending departure last week, with Kaine emphasizing he was “deeply troubled” by the sudden move and hinting at political motivations for the quick search.
“I’m deeply troubled by the sudden departure of President Tim Sands at Virginia Tech. He has been an exceptional leader for over a decade — a period of significant growth for the university,” Kaine said in an April 9 statement. “This action has the earmarks of previous well-publicized efforts to oust Presidents at other Virginia public universities — VMI, UVA and George Mason. I urge Governor Spanberger to get to the bottom of this latest attack on Virginia higher education and take all necessary action to insulate university leadership from politically-motivated schemes.”
Rocovich told reporters last week that the search was not “a political decision.”