Rafael Martín Named University’s New Vice President, Chief of Staff

Rafael Martín, associate vice president for research at The University of Texas at Dallas, has accepted a new role as vice president and chief of staff for the University. In this capacity, Martín will serve as a liaison with campus leadership, provide oversight of campuswide administrative functions, make policy recommendations, and assist in outreach to the University’s community partners and supporters.

“Rafael emerged from a pool of highly qualified candidates, and I am thrilled he has accepted,” UT Dallas President Richard C. Benson said. “His breadth of knowledge about UT Dallas and his ability to leverage that knowledge toward addressing challenges we face as a university will be critical in the coming years.”

Martín served as interim vice president for research before Dr. Joseph Pancrazio’s appointment to that role in 2018. He has been with UT Dallas since 2003, when he started as the founding manager of the Office of Technology Transfer.

He became associate vice president for research in 2006 and has since overseen tremendous growth in that office, which included an increase in research expenditures from $43 million in 2006 to more than $113 million in 2018.

He worked to expand the University’s research administration infrastructure to help accommodate that growth, incorporating new functions into the Office of Research, including post-award management/grants accounting, research and academic safety, research information systems and research facilities operations.

“I’m excited to begin serving in this role for UT Dallas at such a noteworthy time in our history, the University’s 50th anniversary,” Martín said. “The foundation we have built over the past 50 years has prepared us to take the next step in our institutional evolution. I look forward to helping realize our founders’ vision of building a leading research university in Dallas that serves as a source of talent and knowledge for our community, our state and our nation.”

Before joining UT Dallas, Martín worked as a paramedic with Durham County Emergency Medical Services in Durham, North Carolina, and for McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, in its Dallas and Toronto offices.

Executive Vice President Hobson Wildenthal, who accepted the duties of chief of staff in fall 2018, will transition to a position as a professor of physics. Benson also appointed him to the position of Distinguished Scholar in Residence, reporting to the president, with the request that he assist University efforts to advance the visual and performing arts at UT Dallas.

“I have had the tremendous fortune of working closely with Dr. Wildenthal and benefiting from his counsel since arriving here three years ago,” said Benson, who is also the Eugene McDermott Distinguished University Chair of Leadership. “He has played an outsized role in shaping UT Dallas for almost three decades. He has also demonstrated incomparable passion for cultivating external support and recruiting talented faculty and students — all with the singular mission of setting UT Dallas on a path toward national and international renown — and he will continue to do so in his new role.”

Martín earned his undergraduate degree in economics and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned his master’s degree in environmental management from Duke University.

“As we forge ahead into our 50th year of existence as UT Dallas with a new and ambitious strategic plan, Mr. Martín will be a great ally to us all as we work to achieve our goals,” Benson said.

Martín will begin his new role July 1.