Some of you may remember me from a post in the "More Thames cronies hired as administrators" string below.  The string dealt with USM VP for Financial Affairs, Gregg Lassen.  Since many of you seemed interested, I did some Internet searching the past few days.  Here's what I've come up with.

It seems he's a wannabe politician.  He ran for the School Board in Houston in the early 1990s and won.  Then he ran as a Libertarian for the U.S. House from Texas in 1996.  He got only 2.7% of the general election vote.

He then moves to Utah and runs for Governor as a Democrat in 2000.  (How do you go from a Libertarian living in Texas to a Democrat in Utah?)  Here's what the Cook Political Report had to say on 3/11/2000:

"After avoiding a potentially divisive primary challenge ... Republican Governor Michael Leavitt will not face major opposition on his way to a third term.  Democrats seemed excited about Gregg Lassen, a retired energy executive.  But Lassen, 40, has lived in the state [Utah] only two and a half years. . ."

It seems Lassen didn't bother to check state residency requirements before running for governor.  His lack of residency (only 2.5 yrs.) there forced him to abandon his candidacy.

Later, in 2002, Lassen ran for Salt Lake County Treasurer as a Democrat.  He got 39.93% of the general election result, and lost again.

The USM Press release announcing his appointment talks about alot of financial management experience.  Notice the quote above says he is a retired energy executive (at 40 years old; yeah, right...).  Several news agencies, when reporting on his political battles, simply refer to him as "a world traveller."  (Is he a man of leisure?)  Another calls him a "natural gas [industry] negotiator."  I think this means he is simply a lobbyist, thus explaining his love for politics and such.

As far as his academic credentials, he has an MBA and a JD, hardly alot for a major administrative position at a large State U.  He was the Associate Dean for Graduate Business Studies at the University of Phoenix (Online U.) before USM.

As some of you may remember, I found out earlier from student worker (and friend) in the Dome that he was Assistant Provost (to Cynthia Moore) before being named VP for Finance upon Linda McFall's resignation.  The press release does not mention this fact.  I guess it assumes, by doing so, that we'll all believe he flew in from Utah all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

The PR did mention that he was a PhD student in economic development.  He probably got into that when he was working for Pheonix from his home in Utah.  It seems, as I just found out yesterday, that our Phd program in Economic Development is entirely online.  Also, keep in mind, that this is Dvorak's area of USM.  I suspect he is an Angie Dvorak crony, just like Mark Dvorak and Jack Hanbury.

What's next?

Happy reading,

Leslie