Ben Lennander has been selected to serve as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s interim assistant vice chancellor for human resources.
The appointment, which will begin on June 3, was announced by Mike Zeleny, vice chancellor for Business and Finance. Lennander, who has served as director of payroll operations, replaces Steve Beck, who is leaving the university for another professional opportunity.
After graduating from Iowa State University with an accounting degree in 2001, Lennander moved to Lincoln to start a small business. He joined UNL in 2008, bringing an entrepreneurial spirit to each role held. During his tenure in Business and Finance, Lennander spent four years implementing standardized business processes and shared services for HR and finance. In that role, his team completed more than 100 process improvement projects. In the last year, he has served as director of payroll.
Lennander is passionate about coaching and is a mentor for the Staff Mentorship Program run by UNL’s Organizational Development unit. One of the things he enjoys most about leadership is exploring the strengths of his team members and guiding them to leverage those strengths for efficiency, growth, and success.
Beck was hired in April 2022 after a national search and brought years of experience in guiding progressive human resources programs in the healthcare and manufacturing industries. Beck was also a former University of Nebraska–Lincoln employee, having started his career more than 25 years ago as a senior human resources facilitator with Human Resources, then as an HR manager within Athletics.
“I am grateful to Ben for stepping up into this significant leadership role,” Zeleny said. “I’d also like to thank Steve for his leadership and service over many years to our university.”
The university’s assistant vice chancellor for human resources provides executive leadership for the institution’s human resource operations and organization. The position is responsible for ensuring compliance with human resource laws and regulations and identifying and recommending remedies for HR risk mitigation. The position works collaboratively with other human resources leaders in the NU system and will play an important role in the design and implementation of NU’s new enterprise HR system, Success Factors. Following that implementation, a search will likely be launched to select the permanent assistant vice chancellor for human resources.
