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The University of North Texas System Board of Regents voted unanimously today to name Dr. Neal Smatresk president of UNT, effective Feb. 3. Smatresk, 62, will succeed V. Lane Rawlins, who announced in March that he planned to retire at the end of 2013. The first thing Smatresk will do is a lot of listening, he told me in an interview after the vote. “I need to find out what people’s hopes and dreams are inside the university, but as importantly, I need to really engage the community,” he said. Smatresk’s main message to the business community: UNT is open for business. "We want to listen and we want to be the best partner that you ever had," he said. Smatresk, who joins UNT after serving as president of the University of Nevada Las Vegas for four years, said he plans to build on the 36,000-student Denton university’s reputation as an emerging nationally prominent research institution. Smatresk will focus on building stronger community partnerships, strengthening UNT’s research, scholarship and artistic endeavors and continuing to expand the quality of its student body and faculty. As an example of the type of partnership he will pursue, Smatresk said working with the semiconductor sector will be a priority. “Advanced sciences and material sciences are creating a revolution in areas like energy, microelectronics and other computing,” he said. Read more: http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/blog/2013/12/new-unt-president-smatresk-ready-to.html