About The President
Bob Bell became the university's eighth president when he took office on July 1, 2000. Before being named president, he served at TTU for 24 years as a professor and dean of the College of Business.
President Bell has earned an international reputation in quality management, being recognized in 1998 by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce for his work serving on the Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award four times.
He also served as a state delegate to the White House Conference on the North American Free Trade Agreement and worked closely with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology.
President Bell was appointed by the governor as a charter member of the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence (TNCPE), and he was a member of the TNCPE Panel of Judges from 1994 to 2007.
He has also been involved in state-wide economic development on behalf of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, working on the THEC master plan focusing on links among higher education and stakeholders in business, health care and state government. He currently chairs the Cookeville-Putnam County Industrial Development Board and is on the Executive Committee of the Chamber of Commerce.
A member of the Board of Directors for the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference, President Bell has served as chairperson of the finance committee and currently chairs the Board of Directors. He is also a member of the executive committee of the Middle Tennessee Council of Boy Scouts of America.
President Bell earned his doctorate in business administration in 1972 from the University of Florida, where he also received his master's degree in 1970 and bachelor's degree in 1969.
