Oral Roberts University Names New President

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma -- Board Chair Mart Green and the Oral Roberts University Board of Trustees announced on Wednesday the election of Dr. Mark Rutland as the next president of ORU. The vote was unanimous.

"We are excited about the future under the leadership of Dr. Rutland," Green said. "He has been selected as the result of a careful process and we are confident that he will take the university to new heights while continuing to uphold the mission and vision of Oral Roberts University."

Dr. Mark Rutland will assume the presidency in July 2009.

Rutland comes to ORU from Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida where he has served as president of the school for the past 10 years. He has also served as president of Global Servants, a missions and evangelism organization founded in 1977.

Rutland is credited with engineering a turnaround at Southeastern after he became president in 1999. The campus has undergone more than $50 million in renovations and construction, and enrollment has increased from less than 1,000 to more than 3,000 effective September 2008.

A Texas native, Rutland was educated at the University of Maryland and Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He holds a Ph.D. from California Graduate School of Theology. He is the author of 13 books and his 30-minute daily radio program, Herald of Joy, is heard in multiple markets. Rutland and his wife, Alison, have one son, two daughters, three grandsons, and two granddaughters.

Former ORU President Richard Roberts is involved in a financial scandal alleging he funneled as much as $1 billion into personal accounts, which he denies.