Ángel Cabrera

President, Georgia Tech

On Sept. 1, 2019, Ángel Cabrera became the 12th president of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Cabrera came to Georgia Tech after serving for seven years as president of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

A top-10 public research university in the U.S., Georgia Tech has outstanding programs in business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts, and the sciences. With 40,000 students and more than 170,000 living alumni who work in business, industry, and government throughout the world, Georgia Tech has become internationally recognized for the quality of its educational and research programs.

Under Cabrera’s leadership, thousands of members of the Georgia Tech community contributed to a new 10-year strategic plan launched in Fall 2020. The plan is grounded on a new mission statement that reaffirms Tech’s commitment to “developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition.”

He has led the Institute through one of the most critical times in its history in response to the coronavirus pandemic — internally to prioritize the health and safety of the Tech community and externally to develop innovative solutions to combat the disease.

Under Cabrera’s leadership at George Mason, the university accounted for more than half of all enrollment growth in Virginia, increased student outcomes, and joined the top tier of research universities in the Carnegie Classification. From 2004 to 2012, he served as president of the Thunderbird School of Global Management, now part of Arizona State University. Prior to that he was dean of IE Business School in Madrid.

As a business educator, Cabrera has played a key role in advancing professional ethics, internationalization, and corporate social responsibility. As a senior advisor to the United Nations Global Compact, in 2007 he was the lead author of the “Principles for Responsible Management Education,” now adopted by more than 700 schools around the world. He is also a co-founder of the University Global Coalition, an international network of universities working in partnership with the United Nations in support of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Cabrera has been named a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, a “Star of Europe” by Bloomberg Businessweek, a “Henry Crown Fellow” by the Aspen Institute, and a “Great Immigrant” by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. He has received honorary degrees from Miami Dade College and Universidad Politécnica of Madrid.

Cabrera serves on the boards of the National Geographic Society, the Atlanta Committee for Progress, the Bankinter Foundation for Innovation, and the Metro Atlanta Chamber.

Cabrera earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Georgia Tech, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar. He also holds a B.S. and an M.S. in computer and electrical engineering from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. He has published extensively in academic journals and has been featured or quoted in leading media around the world.

He is married to management scholar and Georgia Tech classmate Elizabeth. Their son, Alex, is a recent Georgia Tech graduate and currently a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University. Their daughter, Emilia, is a senior at Harvard University. Cabrera is the first native of Spain to serve as president of an American university.

Steven W. McLaughlin

Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Steven W. McLaughlin is provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, as well as a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

McLaughlin first joined Georgia Tech as a member of the faculty in 1996. From 2017 to 2020, he served as dean and Southern Company Chair of Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering, the largest engineering college in the country. Prior roles include the Steve W. Chaddick School Chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 2012 to 2017, and the vice provost for International Initiatives and Steven A. Denning Chair in Global Engagement from 2007 to 2012.

In 2014 he co-founded CREATE-X, a campuswide effort to instill entrepreneurial confidence in students and help them launch companies. The program has successfully launched 225 student-led companies and engaged more than 4,000 students in the principles and practice of evidence-based entrepreneurship.

In 2011 he was awarded the honor Chevalier dans l`Ordre Nationale de Merite (Knight of the French National Order of Merit), the second highest civilian award given by France. He was the first Georgia Tech recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and was cited by President Bill Clinton for “leadership in the development of high-capacity, nonbinary optical recording formats.” He is a past president of the IEEE Information Theory Society and is a Fellow of the IEEE.

McLaughlin’s research interests are in the general area of communications and information theory. His research group has published in the areas of forward error correction and equalization in wireless communications, magnetic/optical data storage, data security, and privacy. He has advised more than 50 master’s and Ph.D. students and postdoctoral scholars. His group has published more than 250 papers in journals and conferences and holds 36 U.S. patents.

He holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from Northwestern University, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University, and a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Michigan.