Mark Braun to retire as Board of Regents executive director

IOWA CITY — After eight years, Board of Regents Executive Director Mark Braun — who started 17 days before Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen was hired in 2017 — is planning to join her in retiring.

Braun, 56, will officially wrap his eventful tenure July 2, 2027 — giving the board “ample time to work on naming my successor,” he said.

“I am so grateful that the board has entrusted me with serving them for nearly a decade,” he said. “My time as executive director has been the culmination of a nearly 30-year career within the Board of Regents system in various roles, and I am so happy to have been able to serve our institutions, and the state of Iowa.”

Braun started lobbying for the University of Iowa in 1998 and did that for a decade until stepping in as UI President Sally Mason’s chief of staff in 2008 — weeks after the epic flood that inundated the UI campus, causing upward of $750 million in damage.

Just months before Mason in January 2015 announced plans to retire, the Board of Regents, effective Aug. 25, 2014, named Braun “transformation project manager” for its new “Transparent, Inclusive Efficiency Review” — which they called TIER.

“Mark has worked in the regent system for more than 15 years and he has broad knowledge and experience with all three universities," then-Board President Bruce Rastetter said at the time. "Mark has been involved in TIER since its inception and his willingness to step up will help ensure we are successful in controlling costs and keeping public higher education affordable for Iowa students.”

Braun took a leave of absence to fill that new role — a leave that became permanent when then-Board of Regents Executive Director Robert Donley announced his retirement in the summer of 2017.

As sole finalist to replace Donley, Braun began his executive director tenure in November of that year

Braun and the board announced his planned retirement Thursday, along with a pay raise to $176,384 and new deferred compensation plans to pay out so long as he remains on the job through June 2027.

His current deferred compensation plan pay out this year amounts to $310,000. He’ll get $310,000 in deferred compensation in 2026, and then a final $460,000 in 2027 — amounting to $1.1 million.

He’ll receive seven years of retirement and benefits.

“I am proud of the great personal and professional relationships I have built with board members, board and university staff, and countless others both inside and out of state government,” Braun said. “Together, we have accomplished so much, and being able to stay focused on keeping our three public universities among the best in the country.”

Acknowledging expectations he’ll remain on the job for two more years, Braun said, “My work is not done yet.

“Over the next two years I will continue to be a fierce advocate for our universities.”

Braun’s tenure included legislative involvement, COVID

Braun got his bachelor’s in political science from the University of Iowa, a bachelor’s in public administration from Upper Iowa University, an MBA from UI, and a doctor of education from the University of New England.

During his time as executive director, Braun led the board through shifts in leadership, legislative involvement, and the higher education landscape — not to mention a pandemic that upended Iowa’s public universities in 2020 and changed some aspects of their operations for good.

Other events during Braun’s tenure:

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com