Interim Vice President for Campus Planning, Infrastructure, and Facilities Bob Broyden to retire

After 30 years of dedicated service to Virginia Tech, Interim Vice President for Campus Planning, Infrastructure, and Facilities Bob Broyden will retire effective June 24.

Embodying the university’s motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), throughout his career, the Southwest Virginia native and Hokie alumnus championed the responsible and effective stewardship of university resources - including financial, human capital, and physical - to achieve Virginia Tech’s strategic vision.

Broyden earned a bachelor's and master’s degree from Virginia Tech and then worked for Johnson & Johnson and Gaston County, North Carolina, prior to joining the university in 1993. 

Over the following three decades, Broyden took on progressive responsibilities supporting Virginia Tech’s financial management, business process improvements, operational analysis, debt capacity planning and allocation, and capital outlay planning. He remained motivated by ensuring the university persisted as a strong financial institution with a focus on constant improvement that placed serving the needs of students as the top priority. 

As his career progressed, he advanced from holding positions as a financial analyst, to manager positions in capital financial planning and capital budgets, to director positions overseeing capital assets and financial management, to assistant and associate vice president positions overseeing capital assets and financial mangement as well as campus planning and capital financing, and finally, to serving as interim vice president for campus planning, infrastructure, and facilities.

Broyden’s service to Virginia Tech has primarily focused on the strategic planning, funding, and execution of the university’s capital projects. In his tenure, he orchestrated the strategy and development of the past 16 capital outlay plans to drive over $2 billion of new funding to advance 200 capital projects, which more than doubled the size of Virginia Tech in the last 30 years. Additionally, Broyden has served as the lead on many strategic initiatives that engaged the Virginia Tech Foundation Inc., community leaders, private partners, corporations, and the Commonwealth of Virginia on behalf of the university. He is known for establishing valuable relationships built on trust and integrity with university deans and vice presidents, state policymakers, senior leaders of corporations, and real estate developers to reach win-win solutions.

“Bob’s reputation as a coalition-builder and his constant drive to position Virginia Tech for success are hallmarks of his legacy of service to the university. His innovative solutions in our financial and capital programs have greatly improved the way we approach capital projects, and the high-performing teams he’s developed will ensure his impact endures long after he retires,” said Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Amy Sebring. “I am especially appreciative of Bob’s selflessness and commitment to service. He readily responded to my call to serve as our interim vice president for campus planning, infrastructure, and facilities and has provided stable leadership and continued momentum in our dedicated facilities teams over the last five months. While we will miss his quick wit and thoughtful counsel, Bob’s retirement is well-deserved, and we wish him the best in his next adventure.”

“I am forever grateful and humbled to have lived a storybook career that spanned three decades serving my alma mater. I'm also grateful for the mentors who took the time and faith to guide me, the tremendous opportunities for challenging work, and most importantly, my many colleagues and teammates who made everything possible,” said Broyden.

Broyden’s commitment to furthering Virginia Tech’s educational mission through optimization of physical assets and financial resources culminated in the formation of a transformational organizational unit called Campus Planning and Capital Financing in 2020, which he led until stepping into the interim vice president role. The high-performing, cross-functional team brings together four key units from the university’s finance and facilities areas to streamline strategic enterprisewide planning for physical assets and to translate those plans to action on time and on budget. Under Broyden’s leadership, the team has advanced the university’s largest major capital projects program and executed the university’s most significant real estate transactions in recent history.

In retirement, Broyden looks forward to spending more time with family, making a return to competitive cycling, volunteering with the community to advance child health and fitness, and remaining a loyal Hokie.   

Broyden’s replacement will soon be announced, concluding a national search to fill this critical role.