It’s official, Missouri Southern has a new vice president for development and executive director of the Missouri Southern Foundation.University President Bruce Speck announced Wednesday that Mark Parsons will begin his duties on Nov. 1. The position is a new position that was created over the summer after a committee decided a new model needed to be set up for the way the foundation and the university work together.”We went through a very long process involving all three boards: the alumni foundation, the Board of Governors and the Foundation board,” Speck said. “We agreed on a new model that would make the vice president for development hold a second hat as the executive director of the foundation.”Speck said legally the Foundation needs to be a separate entity from the University to keep its integrity.”The process was pretty thorough and because it engaged all the people it needed to it went well and based on the outcome we went forward with the new model,” Speck said.With the new model in place the University started advertising with it in mind. Southern received 40 applications for the position then narrowed those down to three candidates, who were then brought to campus and interviewed.”I think all three finalist were excellent,” Speck said. “But there was a quality to Mark because he had strategic goals and he understands higher education. That was really helpful to us and the committee was unanimous in voting for him.”Parsons currently holds a position as the associate vice president and director of gift planning at the University of Minnesota Medical Foundation in Minneapolis.”We are very fortunate to have selected a candidate who has rich experience and has been a professional for development for a number of years,” Speck said. “He brings to the campus the critical skills necessary for us to go to the next level with the Foundation.”