Eduardo Peñalver will become Georgetown University’s 49th university president, the university announced Oct. 15.
Peñalver said he is honored to join Georgetown.
“I’m deeply honored to have the privilege of serving as Georgetown’s next president,” Peñalver said in the press release. “I would like to thank the Presidential Search Committee and Georgetown’s board of directors for entrusting this role to me at such a pivotal time for Georgetown and for higher education. I am also grateful to Jack DeGioia for his decades of transformative leadership and to Interim President Bob Groves for his careful stewardship this past year.”
Peñalver will begin his position July 1, 2026.
Currently the president of Seattle University, another Jesuit university, Peñalver has not previously held a position at Georgetown. Before leading Seattle University, Peñalver was the dean of Cornell Law School and a professor at various law schools.
Thomas Reynolds (GSB ’90), the chair of the Georgetown board of directors, said the university looks forward to inviting Peñalver to campus.
“President Peñalver is an exceptional leader steeped in the Catholic and Jesuit tradition who brings a wealth of experience in higher education, a global mindset, a commitment to social justice and academic excellence, and a bold vision for Georgetown’s future,” Reynolds wrote in the announcement. “We look forward to him joining our Georgetown community.”
Peñalver graduated from Cornell University and earned his law degree from Yale Law School before studying philosophy and theology at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.
Peñalver was the first layperson to serve as president of Seattle University, and will be the second at Georgetown after his predecessor, former university President John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95), who stepped down Nov. 21, 2024. The board of directors voted unanimously to support Peñalver’s nomination to university president.
After DeGioia stepped down, the university formed a search committee in January to identify candidates for the university presidency. The committee aimed to select a new university president by June 1, 2026.
