Dr. Malcolm Portera is chief executive officer of The University of Alabama System, which is Alabama’s largest higher education enterprise.  Comprised of doctoral research universities in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham and Huntsville as well as the acclaimed UAB Health System, the UA System budget exceeds $4.3 billion, with more than 50,000 students, 25,000 employees, and an economic impact surpassing $5.8 billion. 

Dr. Portera received a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State University and earned a master’s degree in political science there.  A Dean’s Scholar Fellow, he holds a Ph.D. in political science from The University of Alabama.

Prior to his current tenure as Chancellor of the UA System, Dr. Portera was the 16th president of Mississippi State University.  His administrative career began in the 1970s when he worked in The University of Alabama’s offices of academic affairs and research and was executive assistant to two presidents before becoming a vice president.  Subsequently he was Vice Chancellor for External Affairs of The University of Alabama System. Upon retiring from that position in 1996, he launched a successful business development and strategic planning company.

Dr. Portera has been instrumental in the creation of several research and instructional programs, including the Materials in Information Technology Program, which achieved National Science Foundation recognition as an engineering and materials research center.  His technology network initiative was designated a Manufacturing Extension Program by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. His long history of involvement in industrial development has contributed to the location of $5 billion of capital investment in the Southeast. 

Former chair of the Council of Presidents of the Southeastern Universities Research Association, and Vice Chair of the Alabama Research Alliance, he serves on several corporate boards and economic development agencies.  They include the Alabama Technology Network, the Southern Research Institute, The Bryant-Jordan Scholar Athlete Foundation, PARCA Board of Directors, Alabama Power Company, Protective Life Corporation, the Metropolitan Development Board, and Operation New Birmingham.

In 2003 he was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor, comprised of 100 living Alabamians elected on the basis of service to the state.  He received the Governor’s Award for Distinguished Service to Alabama from Governor Bob Riley in July 2003 and served on the Governor’s Commission on Education Spending.  A member of Japan’s Foundation for Advanced Information and Research and co-founder of the International Business Advisory Board, he is a recipient of the Japan America Society of Alabama’s Samuel Ullman Award.

Chancellor Portera and his wife Olivia are natives of West Point, Mississippi.  They have two sons, Andy and John Paul, owners of a landscape architecture company with offices in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa; and two grandsons, John Bonner and Malcolm.