UC Santa Barbara administrator Marc Fisher has been appointed to the position of UC Berkeley vice chancellor of administration, effective Sept. 18.

Fisher, who was previously UC Santa Barbara’s vice chancellor of administrative services, was announced as UC Berkeley’s incoming vice chancellor of administration position by Chancellor Carol Christ in a campuswide email Thursday. The campus positions of vice chancellor of administration and vice chancellor of finance were previously combined into one vice chancellor position, but the position was split this summer in an effort to make both positions more efficient.

Fisher graduated from West Virginia University with a degree in landscape architecture and from the University of Pennsylvania’s architecture program, according to the campuswide email.

“Berkeley is a phenomenal institution. I am deeply honored to be chosen for this job,” Fisher said in an email.

Fisher added that he switched career paths from architecture to administration as he searched for challenges outside of what he had been trained in. Fisher recounted working on issues of sustainability, housing and campus safety, among others, and he said in his email that he found the administrative role to be “exciting and challenging.”

Fisher also said in his email that he is looking forward to be working with Rosemarie Rae, the campus’s vice chancellor chief financial officer, as the two positions, since being split, are often interdependent.

“I just have to say we’re so lucky, and I’m so grateful he’s joining our team,” Rae said. “He’s just an exceptional person and leader and he has all of the … techniques that we could use at Berkeley.”

Rae and Fisher have worked on projects in the past, according to Rae, such conceptualizing strategies for increasing student housing universitywide.  

According to Robert Silsbee, Fisher’s colleague at UC Santa Barbara’s Office of Administrative Services, Fisher is “open, honest, caring, insightful, a good listener and a tireless worker.”

“Many of us are still in a bit of shock regarding Marc’s impending departure to Cal,” Silsbee said in the email. “His impact on our campus will remain for decades.”

Silsbee said in his email that Fisher will be remembered for his significant contributions to numerous new campus buildings and building renovations, as well as his “thoughtful attention” to detail for open spaces, indoor spaces and other aspects of campus life.

Fisher said in his email that he plans on exploring UC Berkeley’s community before formulating possible action plans as the campus’s vice chancellor of administration.

“In UC administration, I think that it is most important to understand the culture of the individual campus and its community,” Fisher said in the email. “This has certainly been the case at UCSB. Whatever success we have had, is due to our strong connection to our context and the aspirations of this particular place.”