# List of presidents of New York University

New York University (NYU) is a private research university located in New York City, which was founded by Albert Gallatin in 1831. The "president and chancellor", often shortened to president, is the highest authority in the university after the board of trustees, serving as its chief executive and chief academic officer. From the university's founding until June 1956, the position was simply titled "chancellor".
The president is elected by the board of trustees, and serves as an ex officio member of the board. The president recommends persons to fill the university's senior offices, including provost, executive vice president, general counsel, and deans, who are then appointed by the board. The president also presides over the university senate and confers all degrees, with the board's authorization and upon certification of a student by the faculty.
The president is provided a penthouse residence, which is owned by the university, on Washington Square Park. As of 2021, the president received over $1.5 million in annual compensation. The current president, Linda G. Mills, a social worker who is the university's first female president, assumed office on July 1, 2023.

## Presidents and chancellors

Presidents :
| No. | Name | Years | Notes |
| 1 | James M. Matthews | 1831–1839 | |
| 2 | Theodore Frelinghuysen | 1839–1850 | New Jersey Attorney General (1817–1828); United States Senator from New Jersey (1829–1835); Mayor of Newark (1837–1838); President of Rutgers College (1850–1862) |
| 3 | Isaac Ferris | 1853–1870 | Founder of the Rutgers Female Institute |
| 4 | Howard Crosby | 1870–1881 | Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (1873–1874) |
| 5 | John Hall | 1881–1891 | |
| 6 | Henry Mitchell MacCracken | 1891–1911 | Chancellor of the Western University of Pennsylvania (1881–1884) |
| 7 | Elmer Ellsworth Brown | 1911–1933 | United States Commissioner of Education (1906–1911) |
| 8 | Harry Woodburn Chase | 1933–1951 | President of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1919–1930); President of the University of Illinois System (1930–1933) |
| — | James Loomis Madden | 1951–1952 | Acting chancellor |
| 9 | Henry Townley Heald | 1952–1956 | President of the Illinois Institute of Technology (1940–1952); President of the Ford Foundation (1956–1965) |
| 10 | Carroll Vincent Newsom | 1956–1962 | |
| 11 | James McNaughton Hester | 1962–1975 | Provost of LIU Brooklyn (1957); Vice President of Long Island University (1958–1960); Dean of NYU College & Graduate School of Arts & Science (1960–1962); Rector of the United Nations University (1975–1980); President of the New York Botanical Garden (1980–1989); and President of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation (1989–2004) |
| 12 | John C. Sawhill | 1975–1980 | Director of the Federal Energy Administration (1974); Deputy Secretary of Energy (1979–1980); CEO of the Synthetic Fuels Corporation (1980–1981); President of The Nature Conservancy (1990–2000) |
| — | Ivan Loveridge Bennett | 1980–1981 | Acting president. Dean of NYU School of Medicine and Provost of NYU Medical Center (1969–1981) |
| 13 | John Brademas | 1981–1991 | United States Representative from Indiana (1959–1981); House Majority Whip (1977–1981) |
| 14 | L. Jay Oliva | 1991–2002 | |
| 15 | John Sexton | 2003–2015 | Dean of NYU School of Law (1988–2002) |
| 16 | Andrew D. Hamilton | 2016–2023 | Provost of Yale University (2004–2008); Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford (2009–2016) |
| 17 | Linda G. Mills | 2023–present | |