University of Texas picks admiral over Dallas Fed president for chancellor

Reuters
U.S. Navy Admiral William McRaven testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington March 5, 2013, with regard to the Defense Authorization Request for fiscal year 2014. REUTERS/Gary Cameron

(Reuters) - The University of Texas said Tuesday its Board of Regents picked U.S. Admiral William McRaven as sole finalist for the position of chancellor, passing up Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher who was also reported to have been a candidate. The university made the announcement on its official Twitter feed after its Board of Regents met in Austin. McRaven, a UT graduate, planned the special operations raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011. He is retiring from his military post this summer and would succeed current UT Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa who announced his retirement earlier this year. Fisher, who is 65 and faces mandatory retirement by next spring, is in Washington deliberating the course of future U.S. monetary policy with fellow Fed officials in a meeting set to wrap up on Wednesday. "I wish him fair winds and a following sea," Fisher said in a statement distributed just minutes after the announcement. He has made no public comment on his plans after the Fed. Fisher's predecessor at the Dallas Fed, Robert McTeer, left the bank in 2004 to be chancellor of the Texas A&M University system. (Reporting by Ann Saphir in San Francisco; Editing by Richard Chang)