Riverland Community College employees gave incoming president Adenuga Atewologun a warm welcome Thursday as Atewologun promised strong leadership for the college.

Various Minnesota State University and College officials, including Chancellor Steven Rosenstone, sung Atewologun’s praises during a reception inside the Riverland library Thursday morning.

“He’s going to be an innovative president,” Rosenstone said. “He’s going to be an innovative leader.”

During the presidential search, Atewologun painted himself as a patient leader who believes in evidence-based decision making. He told residents during a public forum he would analyze Riverland during his first year in order to see what organizational changes need to be made.

Thursday, he reaffirmed his mission to guide Riverland through strategic planning, and said he’d like to help each Riverland campus play to its strengths. Atewologun hopes the Owatonna campus can maximize its manufacturing and business courses, Albert Lea can increase its technology-based programs, and Austin’s liberal arts and fine arts programs can blossom under the strategic planning process.

“We need to build on the strengths of our individual campuses,” he said.

Atewologun has served as vice president of academic affairs and dean of faculty at Prairie State College since 2009. He was an American Council on Education fellow at Bellevue College in Washington from 2008 to 2009, and served in various administrative roles at the College of DuPage from 1997 to 2008. He came to the U.S. in 1983, earning a master’s and doctorate degree in agricultural engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before beginning his teaching career in 1990.

He begins his presidency on July 1. Interim president Kent Hanson will leave Riverland to become president of Anoka-Ramsey Community College.