On Monday, the University of New Haven announced Jens Frederiksen as the seventh president in university history. Frederiksen will formally take over the role at the end of the academic year, according to an announcement from Mike Ambrose and the presidential search committee. Meanwhile, he will start working with the university’s community and stakeholders effective immediately.

President-elect Frederiksen comes to New Haven from Fisk University, where he was executive vice president for institutional advancement and enrollment management. While there, he oversaw raising $110 million and helped “spearhead the John Lewis Center for Social Justice and launch Fisk’s Business Incubation and Innovation Center,” said Ambrose.

“I know Dr. Frederiksen is excited to work with the board and the entire Charger community,” Ambrose, who is also vice chair of the university’s Board of Governors, said in the email. “Please join me in congratulating him on earning this richly deserved opportunity.”

Frederiksen, a native of Denmark, studied at Vanderbilt University where he earned four bachelor’s degrees in political science, history, economics and philosophy, a master’s degree in interdisciplinary social and political thought and a Ph. D in contemporary political theory and comparative politics. He has also served as a professor at Vanderbilt, Fisk and the University of the South, according to the announcement.

This semester, Frederiksen will work with current interim-President Sheahon Zenger to acclimate to the university community. According to the email, students and faculty will also have opportunities to meet Frederiksen this spring.

“On behalf of the Board of Governors, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Sheahon Zenger for the steadying leadership he provided as interim president over the last 20 months,” Ambrose wrote.

Monday’s announcement concludes the search led by a constituency of Board members, faculty, staff, students and alumni that began last summer and led to several in-person interviews held earlier this month. The university also worked with WittKieffer, an external search company. Instead of a list of final candidates, the university community was given only updates on the process, that a list had been made and the search committee was moving forward with interviews.