As chancellor of the University System of Georgia, Thomas C. Meredith is responsible for the state's 34 public colleges and universities. The University System has nearly 250,000 students, 35,000 faculty and staff, and an annual budget of $4.6 billion. Additionally, the University System of Georgia has administrative responsibility for the Georgia Public Library Service, which manages the state's 58 public library systems.

Since taking office in January 2002, Meredith has managed several tough state budget cuts, vigorously defended further erosion of the University System's state funding, secured approval from the University System's Board of Regents for the System's new long-term Strategic Plan, toured all USG campuses and conducted a 12-stop economic-development tour of the state. Prior to his appointment in Georgia by the System's board, Meredith served as chancellor of The University of Alabama System since June 1997. In that capacity, he was responsible for three doctoral research universities, which have a combined enrollment of 40,000 students, 17,000 employees, and an annual budget of $1.8 billion.

A native of Owensboro, Ky., Meredith served from 1988 to 1997 as president and professor of education at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. He joined that institution from The University of Mississippi, where from 1984 to 1988 he had served as vice chancellor for executive affairs, adjunct professor of higher education and executive assistant to the chancellor. Before that, Meredith had served as an academic programs officer and as an associate director for programs and planning for the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning in Mississippi from 1974 to 1984. He began his career as a high-school teacher and later as a high-school principal.

Meredith holds a bachelor of arts degree in social studies from Kentucky Wesleyan College, a master of arts degree in education administration and supervision from Western Kentucky University, and a doctor of education degree in administration and supervision with an emphasis in secondary and higher education from The University of Mississippi. He also completed the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University and was a participant in the Higher Education Roundtable at Oxford University.

Meredith serves on numerous educational and corporate boards. He is president of the National Association of System Heads (NASH), an organization comprised of the chief executive officers of the 51 public higher education systems in the United States. Meredith also is chair of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. When he took office in November 2003, he was the first head of a university system to serve as chair of AASCU. Meredith also was appointed in 2002 to a three-year term on the Board of Control for the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB).

While serving as chancellor in Alabama, Gov. Don Siegelman asked Meredith to head the Alabama Commerce Commission, a group charged with drafting, implementing and monitoring a long-term economic development plan for the state. Meredith was initiated into the Alabama Academy of Honor, an organization of only 100 outstanding Alabamians.

The chancellor and his wife, Susan, have two married sons. Mark is a third-year resident in pediatrics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Matthew is in his third year of law school at Southern Methodist University.

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