President Seth /president/about/Bodnar
Seth /president/about/Bodnar was appointed in 2018 as the 19th president of the Ñý¼§Ö±²¥. His vision for the University’s impact can be captured by two words: inclusive prosperity. Together with UM’s faculty, staff, and Ñý¼§Ö±²¥, President /president/about/Bodnar works to make a high-quality education widely accessible and to help every member of the University community reach their unique, full potential.
An innovative and collaborative leader, President /president/about/Bodnar has stewarded UM’s steady, tangible progress in delivering on this vision. During his tenure, UM has become the fastest growing flagship in Montana and among the fastest growing in the West. His efforts to widen access to high-quality, affordable education have produced a 47% increase in the University’s first-year class since fall 2020 and a 45% rise in Native American student enrollment since his arrival at UM.
President /president/about/Bodnar’s efforts that have resulted in significantly improved rates of student retention and persistence, new and innovative workforce training programs in partnership with employers across the state, the largest infrastructure renewal ever at UM, and the most successful fundraising campaign in campus history. After multiple years of record-setting research growth, UM was reclassified in 2022 as an R1 research university, the highest of the Carnegie Classifications, representing less than 4% of universities nationwide.
Before joining UM, President /president/about/Bodnar was a Senior Executive at the General Electric Company. He served as GE Transportation’s first-ever Chief Digital Officer and was the President of GE Transportation’s Digital Solutions business, where he and his colleagues developed software and technology to optimize the global rail industry.
President /president/about/Bodnar has had a distinguished military career, serving in the 101st Airborne Division and the US Army’s First Special Forces Group. As a member of the Army’s elite Green Berets, he commanded a Special Forces detachment on multiple deployments around the world and later served as a special assistant to the Commanding General in Iraq. President /president/about/Bodnar currently holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Montana National Guard.
He served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point, where he taught Economics, published research on economic development in conflict areas, mentored cadets applying for postgraduate scholarships and led field training courses on leadership.
A compelling communicator, he speaks at conferences globally and has been an invited speaker to the United States Congress on technology and innovation. He has written and spoken widely on the role of higher education in both sustaining a healthy democracy and supporting US national security. He sees higher education as not only an engine for social mobility and economic growth, but also a vital ingredient in the US’s global competitiveness.
He graduated first in his class from West Point, received both the Rhodes and Truman scholarships, and earned two graduate degrees from the University of Oxford.