A campus administrator who has served since January as interim Point Park University president has been named the permanent successor to Katherine Henderson, who is retiring as leader of the Downtown campus.

	Paul Hennigan

At a news conference today, school officials formally introduced Paul Hennigan as the school's seventh president. Trustees met yesterday to pick a successor to the decade-long campus leader, who informed Point Park in recent weeks that she would not be returning as president from a yearlong sabbatical that began in January.

A press release today from trustees Chairman Thomas Golonski said Dr. Hennigan will assume his new role on Sept. 1. Dr. Hennigan is a former chairman of Entelechy Health Systems and has worked in city and county government. He came to Point Park, a private university with a current enrollment of 3,400, in 2000 and served as vice president for finance and operations before being tapped as Dr. Henderson's temporary replacement.

In the press release, Mr. Golonski praised the outgoing president for the resurgence under way at the once financially troubled school, including its elevation in 2003 to university status.

And he called Dr. Hennigan a strong leader and a tremendous consensus builder. "Dr. Hennigan recently received a unanimous endorsement from the university's faculty and he enjoys widespread support across the university," Mr. Golonski said.

In 1993, then Pittsburgh Mayor-elect Tom Murphy appointed Dr. Hennigan city finance director. At the time, he was working as an executive assistant in Allegheny County government. Later, in 1998, he also became the city's director of management and budget.

Dr. Hennigan left city government in 1999 to operate a startup computer software business. He has served on the board of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Hennigan, who lives in Franklin Park, holds a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

When Dr. Henderson, who was 59 when she took the job in January 1997, first announced her intention to take a yearlong break, she said the job left her unable to take a substantial vacation and that she wanted more time to focus on fund raising, networking and professional writing. "I'm tired," she said.

In the months before Dr. Henderson arrived from an administrative post at California's Dominican College of San Rafael, Point Park had been so starved for cash it briefly considered an alliance with Duquesne University as a means to shore up its finances.

During her tenure, the school has seen a decade of growth, including new residence halls Downtown and dance studios under construction. Its enrollment has grown by 55 percent and its land acquisitions have given it a larger role in Downtown redevelopment.

She leaves the presidency with the school still embroiled in a labor dispute with its faculty, who voted to unionize in 2004. Point Park has said it views the faculty as managerial employees not eligible for unionization, and it has filed a federal court challenge to the National Labor Relations Board's order that the school begin bargaining with the recently formed faculty union.