NEW: Providence College Elects Kenneth Sicard to Replace Shanley

NEW: Providence College Elects Kenneth Sicard to Replace Shanley

Providence College announced that Rev. Kenneth Sicard has been elected to serve as the college's 13th president.

Current PC President Rev. Brian Shanley will be leaving at the end of the school year in 2020.

As GoLocalProv reported, Shanley’s departure was forced by top Dominican officials that oversee PC and that those officials are concerned about the "liberalization of Providence College."

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Sicard will take over the role on July 1, 2020.

Sicard at PC

Sicard has served as PC’s executive vice president and treasurer for the past 14 years.

In that role, he held a range of responsibilities including president’s chief of staff, providing oversight for the College’s general counsel as well as its divisions of athletics, external affairs/marketing/board relations, mission and ministry, student affairs, human resources, and public safety.

Sicard also served as PC’s acting president during Father Shanley’s six-month sabbatical in 2018.

He has served as co-chair of all three of the College’s Strategic Planning Committees, including the most recent ten-year PC 200 Strategic Plan.

Prior to PC

Following his graduation from Providence College in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, Father Sicard was employed as an audit manager at Fleet Financial Group (then Industrial National Bank) until 1984.

During that time he pursued a master of business administration degree from Providence College, graduating in 1982.

In 1984, Sicard entered the Dominican Order, later earning his bachelor’s degree in sacred theology and master of divinity degree from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C.

His first assignment was as chaplain at Ohio Dominican College in Columbus, OH.

He served there for seven years, also holding the position of instructor in business and theology.

In 1997, Sicard completed his studies for a doctoral degree in business education at The Ohio State University and was assigned to PC as the dean of residence life.

He served as dean until his appointment as executive vice president in 2005.

From 2002 through 2010, Sicard served as the treasurer of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph overseeing the financial and accounting operations of the province. 

From 2010-2016, he served as a member of the Economic Council of the Dominican Order.

Sicard is a member of the President’s Cabinet, and sits on various committees of the College’s Board of Trustees, including the Executive Committee, and the Audit, Board Affairs, Finance, Investment, and Strategic Planning Committees.

He also serves as chair of the College’s Shared Governance Committee. He is a member of the Providence President’s Council, and is a trustee of St. Sebastian School in Needham, MA, and a member of that school’s Audit and Finance Committees. 

He is a former trustee of Roger Williams Hospital in Providence (2008-2013).