President James P. Clements, Ph.D.

James P. Clements became Clemson University’s 15th president on Dec. 31, 2013 after serving as president of West Virginia University. Since his arrival, the value of the Tiger Paw has never been higher, driven by the University’s elevated academic reputation and the exposure from Clemson University’s athletic success on the national stage.

Under his leadership, Clemson has raised the bar in academics, admissions, enrollment, retention rates, graduation rates, research and diversity. Clements has also led the way in helping to raise more than $2.5 billion in private funds during his career, including nearly $2 billion since he arrived at Clemson, resulting in record-breaking fundraising every year.

Clements is a nationally recognized leader in higher education who has served as president of a university in three different athletic conferences, Big East Conference, Big 12 Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference, where he served as the 2016-17 Chair of the ACC Council of Presidents. He currently serves as one of eleven members of the College Football Playoff Board of Managers.

He currently serves on the board of directors of the American Council on Education, the executive committee for the Council of Competitiveness, the Council of Presidents for the Association of Governing Boards, the board of directors for the ACC and the Special Olympics International Board. Clements previously served as the Chair of the Board for the Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities.

Clements holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science as well as a master’s degree and Ph.D. in operations analysis from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He also holds a master’s degree in computer science from Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering and was awarded an honorary degree as Doctor of Public Education from his alma mater, UMBC.

During the nearly five years Clements served as the president of West Virginia University, WVU set significant records in private fundraising, research funding, academic rankings, applications, enrollment, diversity, retention rates and graduation rates.

He was a leader in West Virginia – chairing the boards of the West Virginia United Health System, the WVU Hospitals and the WVU Research Corporation.

The grandson of a coal miner and a firefighter, and son to parents who taught him and his three older siblings that education was the key to a better life, Clements is a first generation college graduate. This was a driving reason he pursued a life and career in higher education – to give others the same opportunity he was given by getting a formal education.

He has published and presented more than 75 papers in the fields of higher education, leadership, strategic planning, project management, computer science and information technology. He also served as principal investigator or co-investigator on more than $15 million in research grants.

Prior to his service at WVU, Clements served as provost and vice president for academic affairs, vice president for Economic Development & Community Outreach and as the Robert W. Deutsch Distinguished Professor of Information Technology at Towson University, the second largest university in the University System of Maryland, where he was a four-time winner of the Faculty Member-of-the-Year Award, given by Towson students. He was a member of the Colonial Academic Alliance as part of the Colonial Athletic Association.

Clements has a deep and abiding commitment to contributing to the development of others. One way he has exemplified this is through the creation of the President’s Leadership Institute at Clemson. PLI is a nine-month leadership development program, now in its eighth year, that brings faculty and staff together to develop their personal and professional leadership skills. Each year, PLI consists of 25 highly-qualified participants, and as of the 2024-25 cohort, there have been 195 graduates of the program. Of note, after at least 5 years post-graduation from PLI, 70% of all graduates have gone on to accept elevated leadership positions.

Clements’ Successful Project Management book is now in its seventh edition and is published in multiple languages and used in numerous countries.

Clements was born in Arlington, Va., but spent the majority of his life in Maryland before relocating to West Virginia and then Clemson. He and his wife, Beth, have been married for 33 years and have four children, Tyler, Hannah, Maggie and Grace; two sons-in-law, Tanner Coombs and Max Kinser; a daughter-in-law, Margot Murray Clements; three grandsons, Cannon, Ronan and Tee; and three granddaughters, Eliza, Eva and Caroline.

Education

• Ph.D., Operations Analysis
  University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1993
• M.S., Operations Analysis
  University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1991
• M.S., Computer Science
  John Hopkins University, Whiting School of Engineering, 1988
• B.S., Computer Science
  University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1985

Leadership Positions

• Atlantic Coast Conference, Board of Directors
  Member and Past Chair
  Previously served on the Executive Committee
• American Council on Education
  Member, Board of Directors;
  Previously chaired the Commission on Leadership
• Association of Public and Land-grant Universities
  Previously chaired the Board of Directors
  Previous Member, Executive Committee and Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness and Economic Prosperity
• National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE 2.0)
  Past Co-Chair and only University president
• National Innovation Advisory Board
  Past Member and only University president
• The Business-Higher Education Forum
  Previous Member, Executive Committee, Board of Directors
• Council on Competitiveness
  Member, Executive Committee; Past Co-chair of the Energy & Manufacturing Competitiveness Partnership Committee
• Association of Governing Boards
  Member, Council of Presidents
• College Football Playoff Board of Managers
  Member

Faculty Positions

• Professor with a joint appointment in Computer Science & Industrial Engineering, Clemson University
• Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, West Virginia University
• Robert W. Deutsch Distinguished Professor, Computer and Information Sciences, Towson University
• Adjunct Professor, Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University