Character & Transformative Leadership
Nathan Hatch served as the president of Wake Forest University for 16 years and previously served as Provost at the University of Notre Dame. He recently published The Gift of Transformative Leaders. We will discuss this book and his lifelong commitment to making character central in higher education.
Experience the Event
Monday, February 17, 2025 12:00 pm
Nathan Hatch served as the president of Wake Forest University for 16 years and previously served as Provost at the University of Notre Dame. He recently published The Gift of Transformative Leaders. We will discuss this book and his lifelong commitment to making character central in higher education.
This event was recorded on February 17, 2025 at 12:00 pm ET. Learn more at the Virtues & Vocations website.
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MoreMeet the Speaker: Nathan Hatch
Dr. Nathan O. Hatch became Wake Forest’s 13th president on July 1, 2005, and retired on June 30, 2021. While at the helm, U.S. News and World Report named Wake Forest 23rd among 281 national universities – the highest ever ranking for the University.
He and his wife, Julie, a former public school teacher, have three children: Gregg, a 1997 graduate of Notre Dame, works in residential real estate in Seattle, WA; David, a 2000 Notre Dame graduate, received an MBA degree from Duke University in 2007 and works in finance in Charlotte, NC; and Beth, a 2007 graduate of Notre Dame, who earned her Master of Divinity at Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C. in 2015. The Hatches also have eight grandchildren.
Dr. Hatch grew up in Columbia, S.C., where his father was a Presbyterian minister. A graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois, he received his master’s and doctoral degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and held post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities. He joined the faculty at Notre Dame in 1975. He was named provost, the university’s second highest-ranking position, in 1996; a Presbyterian, he was the first Protestant to ever serve in that position at Notre Dame.
After he retired as president of Wake Forest, Dr. Hatch continued to add his scholarship and experience to the higher education landscape. In addition to serving on several nonprofit boards, Hatch served on the Notre Dame Board of Trustees and the Fuller Seminary Board of Trustees. Because of his love for good leadership, he wrote a book, The Gift of Transformative Leaders, published by Cambridge University Press, which profiled a series of leaders he worked with and examined their individual leadership styles which led to their success.
The Gift of Transformative Leaders
From the Publisher: Great organizations flourish at the hands of transformative leaders. Most organizations remain competitive but are unlikely to advance without impetus. Only exceptional leaders in an organization can fulfill an ambition for real institutional advancement. In this Element, Nathan Hatch, a former university president and provost at two top-30 national universities, draws on their more than forty-year career in higher education to showcase leaders the author recruited and empowered to advance and transform institutions. At each institution, the author witnessed pockets of mediocrity transform into national examples of excellence. Finding the right leader to spearhead the work was the key to growth and success nearly every time. Through the stories of thirteen transformative leaders, Hatch illuminates how the author approached identifying talent and empowered leaders to lead in bold and creative ways.
For more information, please click here.
What I learned from Fr. Ted Hesburgh
In this article, Dr. Nathan Hatch reflects on his tenure at Notre Dame and his admiration for the late Fr. Hesburgh.
“He never seemed to doubt who he was and was thus free to relate to people as they were — no condescension, no putting on airs. I will never forget how twice, when my wife, Julie, was pregnant, he made a special effort to bless mother and child. We were not Catholic, but he always embraced us and made us feel welcome. It was as if he forgot his status and took seriously the injunction that everyone is worthy of attention.”
“Higher education today needs dreamers, not plodders. May those of us privileged to lead colleges and universities lift our sights and renew a capacity to dream in the generous spirit of Father Ted.”
To read the article in its entirety, please click here.