The Ohio State University is, by many measures, the largest University in the United States and it has an annual budget of over $ 4 Billion – which is more than many countries! The President of Ohio State University E Gordon Gee has joined the Advisory Board of American College Cricket.

Gee worked for Chief Justice Warren Burger of the U.S. Supreme Court after clerking under Chief Justice David T. Lewis of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

President Gee with OSU cricket captain Romel Somavat.

In November 2009 Time magazine featured E Gordon Gee in its “Top 10 Universities Presidents” and said: “Gee’s power is evident in his $4.35 billion budget — bigger, he notes, than the budget of the state of Delaware — and the outsize role his institution plays in the state’s economy. Gee presides over some 40,000 employees, one of the state’s largest and best hospitals, a major hive of research, a small-business incubator, a hugely popular sports-entertainment empire, a large portfolio of real estate (including a small city’s worth of housing units) and a network operations reaching into nearly every community in the state.

By some measures, “Ohio State U is the largest research-university campus in the country — we think in the world,” says Leslie Wexner, the billionaire retailer who chairs the university’s board of trustees. “It is a very big, very powerful organization. Gordon understands the potential influence his job entails.”

Time said “A poll….found that he could easily be elected governor in a state that calls itself the Cradle of Presidents.” “He’s an exceptional leader,” Governor Ted Strickland said.

On Sept 26 President Gee attended the first American College Cricket Midwest Championship which included a number of Big 10 colleges, and said “It’s great to see Big 10 schools competing in another sport – cricket, and it’s an honor to have the Trophy bear my name.” Each year the Champions of the Midwest Championships will be awarded the E Gordon Gee Trophy.

American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah said “The breath and scope of Ohio State President E Gordon Gee’s vision and accomplishments is extraordinary. Gee is an innovative leader whom American College Cricket is immensely pleased to be associated with as we work to bring cricket -the original American college sport – back into the USA mainstream.”

At age 37 Dr Gee became President of West Virginia University (1981-85), followed by the University of Colorado (1985-90), Ohio State University (1990-97), Brown University (1998-2000) and Vanderbilt University (2001 -2007). At Vanderbilt he raised $1.25 billion while increasing the number of applicants and their quality based on SAT scores, before he returned to OSU in 2008.