One thing that is constant in the public arena is change! John Garamendi joins the CSU Board of Trustee as an ex officio trustee replacing Cruz Bustamante. Garamendi became the 46th Lieutenant Governor of California this past week; in this new position he will join Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, both also recently re-elected, as ex officio trustees on the Board. In addition to these three statewide officers, the Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez sits on the Board.

Lieutenant Governor Garamendi was most recently the California State Insurance Commissioner, a position he held from 2003 to 2006, and also as the first occupant of that office from 1991 to 1995. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton as deputy secretary of the United States Department of Interior from 1995 to 1998. Garamendi won election to the California State Assembly in 1974 and to the State Senate in 1976 where he served until 1990. Garamendi received a Bachelor’s degree in business from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. He and his wife Patti have six children and three grandchildren. The family operates a ranch in Walnut Grove near Sacramento.

In addition to this newest member of the Board of Trustees, the Senate Rules Committee will be holding confirmation hearings this spring for two new trustees, Kenneth Fong of Atherton and Glen Toney of Chico, appointed to the Board last summer. They will both need to be confirmed by two-thirds of the State Senate by June 2007.