President Tim Gibson Resigns from The King's College
Former President Tim Gibson (left) and Interim President Stockwell Day (right). Photos courtesy of The King’s College.
Tim Gibson is stepping down from his role as President at The King’s College, according to an email announcement sent out on Thursday, Aug. 11. Mr. Stockwell Day, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, is serving as the Interim President starting immediately.
“It's time for a change,” Day said in a meeting with available members of the King’s Council later that day. “He [Gibson] served magnificently for five years, and now it's time to change it up.”
Student leaders were not notified of the change before the email was sent. However, Day had met with staff and faculty of the school in a different session that morning before the formal announcement email was released.
“I had no idea. I found out with the emails,” said Student Body President Mattilyn Winburn. “Actually, I wasn't even checking my email so I found out with people texting me. I was like, ‘Let me check my email.’ Then I read it… I feel like some heads-up would have been great.”
“The change may seem sudden because of the announcement,” Day said over email. “However, this is one of many things which I have discussed with Tim and with the board over the last while. We just felt the time for change after his five years of incredible service was now. Tim himself has been vital in those conversations.”
Several sweeping changes and advancements were also discussed alongside the resignation announcement. In the mass email, Day highlighted that “we have just completed negotiating a 12-year lease in our present location at 56 Broadway. This will also include almost $4 million of upgrades to our campus.”
In the Council meeting, Day also discussed the sharing agreement that the school currently has with Primacorp Ventures, an independent investment contractor based out of Canada that the college partnered with in May 2021. He highlighted the growth of the King’s Online and Crossover programs and mentioned the possibility of a “Global Rotation Plan” for full and part-time students to “bring their Christian worldview into a workplace in Turkey, Hong Kong, wherever it might be – the cities haven't been decided yet.”
“I don't see it [the resignation] necessarily having a super negative impact on the school,” Winburn said. “It's just going to be a time of adjustment and a time of change.”
Day has served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the college since October 2021. According to the King’s website biography for Day, “the Honourable Stockwell Day, a Canadian former politician… served in the Progressive Conservative government of Alberta from 1986 to 2000 and in the Government of Canada until 2011.”
“Though you may not have seen him or met him, he has actually been very involved in what’s happening to Kings behind the scenes from a higher level of leadership,” Dean David Leedy said during the Council meeting. “He’s had a lot of experience in Canadian politics, but he is out of that world and now is spending a lot of time at King’s and investing in the future of our global class here.”
Day has also been connected to Primacorp Ventures since at least early 2021, when he was a guest speaker at the Joseph Chung Scholarship Award Ceremony hosted by Primacorp’s Philanthropy division on Jan. 23. He was also an honored guest and introductory speaker in the opening of Joe’s Table Café at Quest University, another Primacorp-sponsored business, in September 2021.
Day said in response to a question from Jet Ragas, President of the House of Clara Barton, that the process of hiring a new president is “going to be thorough… just the search portion of that often takes a number of months. I'm hoping for as soon as possible, [but] it's not going to be undue haste. We will do a full search if required.”
“In my years of dealings in business and government I have had the opportunity to work with a rare few people who so completely exemplify a Christ-like approach to all of their responsibilities and their actions – Tim is one of those people,” Day said over email. “We are familiar with the expression of somebody being a ‘sterling’ person. Tim is more than sterling, he is platinum gold.”
Former President Tim Gibson and Dean Leedy have not commented at this time.
Melinda Huspen is the Campus Editor of the Empire State Tribune. She is a junior at The King’s College studying Journalism, Culture and Society.
Myrian Garcia is the Managing Editor of the Empire State Tribune. She is a rising senior majoring in Journalism, Culture and Society.