List of presidents of Yale University

{{Short description|None}} right|thumb|Woodbridge Hall, location of the university president's office.

Yale University was founded in 1701 as a school for Congregationalist ministers. One of its ten founding ministers, Abraham Pierson, became its first Rector, the administrative and ecclesiastical head of the college. After Pierson, four more ministers served as rectors of the collegiate school, until 1745 when Yale College was chartered by the Colony of Connecticut and Thomas Clap's title was changed to president. In 1878, Yale incorporated as a university, and incumbent Timothy Dwight V became the last president of the college and the first of Yale University. The first president not ordained as a minister was Arthur Twining Hadley, inaugurated in 1899; no ordained person has held the office since.

The president is elected by the Yale Corporation, the governing body of the University on which the president sits ''ex-officio''. The corporation's bylaws state that the president is "chief executive officer of the University and as such is responsible for the general direction of all its affairs."<ref>{{cite web |title=The Yale Corporation Bylaws |date=28 September 2013 |url=http://www.yale.edu/about/bylaws.html |publisher=The President and Fellows of Yale University |accessdate=3 February 2014}}</ref> The president nominates other university officers, including the provost, secretary, and other vice presidents, for election by the corporation. Other top-level administrative positions, such as university chaplain, deans of schools, and masters of residential colleges, are appointed by the president alone.

The university's current president is Maurie D. McInnis who took office on July 1, 2024. She earned her Ph.D. from Yale, is trained as a cultural historian and formerly served as the sixth president of Stony Brook University.

The Office of the President is located in Woodbridge Hall, a 1901 building erected specifically for administrative purpose.<ref>{{cite news |title=New Building for Yale |newspaper=The New York Times |date=28 October 1900 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0910FE3F5B11738DDDA10A94D8415B808CF1D3 |accessdate=3 February 2014}}</ref> The university maintains an official home for the president on Hillhouse Avenue, which hosts presidential events. Peter Salovey, inaugurated in 2013, is the first president since 1986 to use the home as his primary residence.<ref>{{Cite news |first=Julia |last=Zorthian |title=Salovey to reside in president's house |date=25 April 2013 |url=http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2013/04/25/salovey/ |accessdate=15 July 2013}}</ref> ==Rectors of Yale College (1701–1745)==  The following persons had led Yale as rector:<ref name="Courant list">{{cite news |url=https://courant.newspapers.com/newspage/370418735/ |title=Griswold Will Be Sixteenth Yale Mentor |date=February 13, 1950 |page=13 |newspaper=Hartford Courant |url-access=subscription |quote=}}</ref><ref name="Yale List">{{cite web |title=Rectors & Presidents |publisher=Yale University Library |url=http://guides.library.yale.edu/content.php?pid=382178&sid=3132127 |accessdate=8 February 2013}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" !{{abbr|No.|Number}} !! Image !! Rector of Yale College !! Term start !! Term end !! {{abbr|Refs.|References}} |- |colspan=6 align="center" bgcolor="#dddddd" style="Font-weight: bold;" |Rectors of the Collegiate School (1701–1719) |- | 1 || 60px || Abraham Pierson (1641–1707) || November 11, 1701 || March 5, 1707 | |- bgcolor="#e6e6aa" | 2{{efn|Served ''pro tempore''}} || 60px || Samuel Andrew (1656–1738) || 1707 || March 24, 1719 | |- |colspan=6 align="center" bgcolor="#dddddd" style="Font-weight: bold;" |Rectors of Yale College (1719–1745) |- | 3 || 60px || Timothy Cutler (1684–1765) || March 24, 1719 || October 17, 1722 | |- | 4 || 60px || Elisha Williams (1694–1755) || September 13, 1726 || October 31, 1739 | |- | 5 || 60px || Thomas Clap (1703–1767) || April 2, 1740 || June 1, 1745 | |}

Table notes: {{notelist}}

==Presidents of Yale College (1740–1887) and Yale University (1887–)== The following persons had led Yale as president:<ref name="Courant list"/>

{| class="wikitable" !{{abbr|No.|Number}} !! Image !! President of Yale College<ref name="Yale List" /> !! Term start !! Term end !! {{abbr|Refs.|References}} |- |colspan=6 align="center" bgcolor="#dddddd" style="Font-weight: bold;" |Presidents of Yale College (1745–1887) |- | 5 || 60px || Thomas Clap (1703–1767) || June 1, 1745 || nowrap | September 10, 1766 | |- bgcolor="#e6e6aa" | 6{{efn|name="pro"|Served ''pro tempore''}} || 60px || Naphtali Daggett (1727–1780) || October 22, 1766 || March 25, 1777 | |- | 7 || 60px || Ezra Stiles (1727–1795) || June 23, 1778 || May 12, 1795 | |- | 8 || 60px || Timothy Dwight IV (1752–1817) || nowrap | September 8, 1795 || January 11, 1817 | |- | 9 || 60px || Jeremiah Day (1773–1867) || July 23, 1817 || October 21, 1846 | |- | 10 || 60px || nowrap | Theodore Dwight Woolsey (1801–1889) || October 21, 1846 || October 11, 1871 | |- | 11 || 60px || Noah Porter III (1811–1892) || October 11, 1871 || July 1, 1886 | |- |colspan=6 align="center" bgcolor="#dddddd" style="Font-weight: bold;" |Presidents of Yale University (1887–present) |- | 12 || 60px || Timothy Dwight V (1828–1916) || July 1, 1886 || June 28, 1899 | |- | 13 || 60px || Arthur Twining Hadley (1856–1930) || June 29, 1899 || June 22, 1921 | |- | 14 || 60px || James Rowland Angell (1869–1949) || June 22, 1921 || June 30, 1937 |<ref>{{cite news |url=https://courant.newspapers.com/newspage/369449780/ |title=DR. ANGELL CHOSEN TO SUCCEED PRES. HADLEY AS YALE'S NEW LEADER |date=February 20, 1921 |page=1 |newspaper=Hartford Courant |url-access=subscription |quote=For the first time in the history of Yale, a president not a graduate of the university was today chosen its head, the corporation holding an adjourned meeting and confirming the choice of Dr. James Raymond Angell as the successor to President Arthur T. Hadley.}}</ref> |- | 15 || 60px || Charles Seymour (1885–1963) || July 1, 1937 || June 30, 1951 |<ref>{{cite news |url=https://courant.newspapers.com/newspage/370281811/ |title=Charles Seymour Next President Of Yale University |date=February 14, 1937 |page=1 |newspaper=Hartford Courant |url-access=subscription |quote=Dr. Charles Seymour, 52, provost and history professor at Yale University, friend of Woodrow Wilson and Colonel Edward M. House, and biographer of House, was elected the fifteenth president of Yale this afternoon. He succeeds Dr. James Rowland Angell, president of the university 1921, who retires in June, having reached the retirement age for faculty members, 68. The selection was made by the Yale Corporation which for several months has been deliberating the choice of a successor to Dr. Angell.}}</ref> |- | 16 |||| Alfred Whitney Griswold (1906–1963) || July 1, 1951 || April 19, 1963{{efn|Died in office.}} |<ref>{{cite news |url=https://courant.newspapers.com/newspage/370418401/ |title=A. W. Griswold Elected To Succeed Seymour As President Of Yale |date=February 13, 1950 |page=1 |newspaper=Hartford Courant |url-access=subscription |quote=Alfred Whitney Griswold has been elected the sixteenth president of Yale University. Mr. Griswold s professor of history at Yale and is an authority on American political science and foreign policy. He is 41 years old. He has been granted an immediate leave of absence for the remainder of the academic year and will assume his new post on July 1. He succeeds President Charles Seymour, who retires on June 30.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://courant.newspapers.com/newspage/240953010/ |title=Yale President, 56, Dies |date=April 20, 1963 |page=1 |newspaper=Hartford Courant |url-access=subscription |quote=A. Whitney Griswold, 56, president of Yale University, died Friday of' cancer at his home.}}</ref> |- bgcolor="#e6e6aa" | acting ||rowspan="2" bgcolor="#ffffff"| 60px ||rowspan="2" bgcolor="#ffffff"| Kingman Brewster, Jr. (1919–1988) || April 19, 1963 || October 12, 1963 |<ref>{{cite news |url=https://courant.newspapers.com/newspage/240953010/ |title=Ex-Harvard Man Becomes Acting Yale President |date=April 20, 1963 |page=1 |newspaper=Hartford Courant |url-access=subscription |quote=A former Harvard Law School professor has become acting president of Yale University. He is Kingman Brewster Jr., the Yale University provost. Under the by-laws of the university, Brewster has taken over the functions of the late President A. Whitney Griswold, who died Friday at 56.}}</ref> |- | 17 | October 12, 1963 || May 17, 1977 | <ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1963/10/14/kingman-brewster-named-17th-president-of/ |title=Kingman Brewster Named 17th President of Yale |date=October 14, 1963 |newspaper=The Harvard Crimson}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/12/resources/1898 |title=Kingman Brewster, Jr., president of Yale University, resignation records |publisher=Yale University}}</ref> |- bgcolor="#e6e6aa" | 18{{efn|name="pro"}} || 60px || Hanna Holborn Gray (born 1930) || May 18, 1977 || June 30, 1978 |<ref name="yale mag 2024"/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/24/archives/against-the-yale-tradition-a-woman-at-the-helm-provost-since-1974.html |title=Against the Yale Tradition, a Woman at the Helm? |first=Diane |last=Henry |date=April 24, 1977 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=58 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> |- | 19 |||| A. Bartlett Giamatti (1938–1989) || July 1, 1978 || June 30, 1986 |<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/21/archives/yale-corporation-formally-names-giamatti-president.html |title=Yale Corporation Formally Names Giamatti President |first=Edward B. |last=Fiske |date=December 21, 1977 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=35 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/23/nyregion/giamatti-to-quit-as-president-of-yale-in-june-1986.html |title=GIAMATTI TO QUIT AS PRESIDENT OF YALE IN JUNE 1986 |first=James |last=Brooke |date=April 23, 1985 |page=B2 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> |- | 20 || 60px || Benno C. Schmidt, Jr. (1942–2023) || July 1, 1986 || June 16, 1992 |<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/10/us/yale-said-to-pick-benno-schmidt-as-president.html |title=YALE SAID TO PICK BENNO SCHMIDT AS PRESIDENT |date=December 10, 1985 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=A1 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/05/26/yale-president-resigns/8c85e0a7-0c5c-4779-9fc2-8dd6d57151b0/ |title=YALE PRESIDENT RESIGNS |date=May 26, 1992 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url-access=subscription}}</ref> |- bgcolor="#e6e6aa" | 21{{efn|name=acting|Served as acting president}} || 60px || Howard R. Lamar (1923–2023) || June 17, 1992 || June 30, 1993 | <ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/06/17/Yale-names-acting-president/3675708753600/ |title=Yale names acting president |date=June 17, 1992 |work=United Press International}}</ref>

|- | 22 || 60px || Richard C. Levin (born 1947) || July 1, 1993 || June 30, 2013 |<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-04-16-mn-23581-story.html |title=Yale Appoints Richard Levin as President |date=April 16, 1993 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.yale.edu/2012/08/30/levin-step-down-yale-president-end-academic-year |title=Levin to step down as Yale president at end of academic year |date=August 30, 2012 |publisher=Yale University}}</ref> |- | 23 || 60px || Peter Salovey (born 1958) || July 1, 2013 || June 30, 2024 |<ref>{{cite web |title=President Salovey’s message to the Yale community |url=https://president.yale.edu/president/statements/president-saloveys-message-yale-community |website=Yale University Office of the President |access-date=31 August 2023}}{{dead link|date=May 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.yale.edu/2013/07/01/yale-welcomes-new-president |title=Yale welcomes new president |date=July 1, 2013 |publisher=Yale University}}</ref> |- |24 |alt=headshot of Dr. Maurie McInnis|left|frameless|75x75px |Maurie D. McInnis (born 1966) |July 1, 2024 || present |<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-05-29 |title=Maurie McInnis named Yale’s next president |url=https://news.yale.edu/2024/05/29/maurie-mcinnis-named-yales-next-president |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=YaleNews |language=en}}</ref><ref name="yale mag 2024">{{Cite magazine |title=McInnis named Yale's 24th president |url=https://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/5905-mcinnis-named-yale-s-24th-president |access-date=2024-06-25 |magazine=Yale Alumni Magazine |language=en |first=Mark Alden |last=Branch |date=Jul–Aug 2024}}</ref> |}

Table notes: {{notelist}}

==References== {{reflist}} {{Yale Presidents}} {{Yale}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Presidents of Yale University}} Yale University Category:Yale University-related lists *