John E. Klein, J.D., chairman and former president and chief executive officer of Bunge North America Inc., will become executive vice chancellor for administration at the University, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. The appointment is effective Sept. 1.
“I am delighted that John Klein has agreed to join our top management team as our executive vice chancellor for administration,” Wrighton said. “His long and successful tenure as the top corporate officer at Bunge North America brings extraordinary experience and leadership skills to help us continue the upward trajectory of the University.
“Washington University is indeed fortunate to attract him and to benefit from his extensive management skills.”
“I look forward to joining Washington University and becoming involved in academia after a 28-year business career with Bunge,” Klein said. “Since we moved to St. Louis in 1990, I have been most impressed with my contacts with Washington University and am very pleased to have been offered this opportunity to become a part of such a vital institution with such great students, faculty and administrators and such a strong national reputation.”
Klein serves as chairman of Bunge North America, a major agri-business company with more than 100 grain-elevator and grain-processing facilities and 4,000 employees in North America.
He was president and chief executive officer of Bunge North America from 1985-2003.
Klein had a variety of international assignments with Bunge in Belgium, Holland, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Argentina from 1976-1981, before returning to New York City in 1981 and receiving rapid promotions from vice president, to senior vice president, to executive vice president, and to president.
Klein moved Bunge North America’s corporate headquarters to St. Louis from New York in 1990.
Klein will be the University’s chief administrative officer, with responsibility for the University’s Central Fiscal Unit (CFU), including finance and administration, administrative information technology, facilities, human resources and other administrative units that serve the University.
The University is projecting a budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 of more than $1.5 billion and an endowment of approximately $4 billion.
Klein will join executive vice chancellors Michael R. Cannon, J.D., Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., and Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., in working with Wrighton as the University’s management committee. Klein will also become a member of the University Council.
In becoming executive vice chancellor for administration, Klein will succeed Richard A. Roloff as the University officer responsible for the CFU. Roloff will continue his full-time employment as a University officer, and after Sept. 1 he will be responsible for the coordination, management and planning of major capital projects, off-campus real estate and off-campus development.
Roloff will also help the University lead a regional initiative to revitalize the business potential of St. Louis through CORTEX — the Center of Research, Technology and Entrepreneurial Expertise.
CORTEX is being supported by the Missouri Development Finance Board, Washington University, BJC HealthCare, Saint Louis University, the University of Missouri-St. Louis and the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Roloff has served as an executive vice chancellor since 1991 and has led the University’s expansion of its infrastructure, with $1.5 billion in expenditures for more than 25 new buildings and extensive improvements and renovations to existing structures and campus landscaping.
Prior to his association with the University as executive vice chancellor, Roloff was a member of the Board of Trustees from 1984-1991, when he was recruited by then-Chancellor William H. Danforth to join the administration’s leadership team.
“Dick Roloff has been an exceptional contributor to the advance of Washington University — as a trustee, distinguished alumnus, and as a member of our leadership team,” Wrighton said. “His work has been vital to the progress we have made, and I am grateful for his commitment to remain a key member of the administration as we look to the future.”
“It is important to note that beginning in the early 1970s, Dick Roloff made key contributions to the Washington University Medical Center redevelopment effort, which has proven to be critical to our emerging as one of the most outstanding academic medical centers in the world.
“Working closely with Chancellor Danforth, Roloff guided the medical center’s development, and I am grateful that he will continue to assist us in the CORTEX initiative that will bring important benefits to the entire St. Louis region.”
Klein earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University in 1967 and a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1971.
Prior to joining Bunge, he was associated with the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell in New York for four years.
Klein has had an active role at Washington University and the St. Louis region.
He serves on the national council of the Olin School of Business and served as trustee and treasurer of MICDS from 1991-2000.
From 1989-1990, he served as a trustee of Greenwich Academy in Connecticut. From 1967-68, Klein was a teaching fellow at International College in Beirut, Lebanon.
Klein is a trustee of the Missouri Botanical Garden and the St. Louis Science Center and a founding director and treasurer of the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis. Klein is also involved with the St. Louis Coalition for Plant and Life Sciences, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and the World Agricultural Forum.
He served as a trustee of the Saint Louis Art Museum from 1991-94. Klein also serves on Lincoln Center’s Consolidated Corporate Fund Leadership Committee in New York City.
Klein has been married to Susan Verklin Klein since 1970, and they have two children, Jennifer and Thomas, both MICDS and Princeton University graduates.
Prior to his appointment as executive vice chancellor, Roloff served as president of Plaza Development Co., which was responsible for the building of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Clayton.
A 1951 graduate of the Washington University School of Engineering, Roloff has become a leader in St. Louis business development. Before becoming president of Plaza Development Co., he was president of Capitol Land Co..
Other projects with which he has been involved include the development of Plaza Frontenac and the planning for the Gateway Mall. In 1991, he was named “business person of the year” by the Clayton Chamber of Commerce.
As a volunteer, Roloff has been active in the revitalization of the Central West End through his support and leadership of the Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corp.
In 1976, he received the University’s School of Engineering & Applied Science alumni achievement award and has been a member of the national council for the school.
In 2000, he received the Dean’s Medal from Arts & Sciences for his distinguished and enduring contributions to the advance of the University.