Oregon State University President Ed Ray has been named chair of the NCAA Executive Committee, effective immediately.

In his new role, Ray also will chair the Executive Committee’s Administrative Subcommittee, which will oversee the search for a new NCAA president.

Ray, who previously chaired the Executive Committee’s finance subcommittee, has been a member of the Executive Committee and the Division I Board of Directors since April 2007.

He replaces University of Georgia President Michael Adams, who announced he is stepping down from the Executive Committee with six months remaining on his term.

Adams, who completed his initial term on the committee last April but was given a one-year extension as chair to provide continuity in leadership during NCAA President Myles Brand’s illness, said he is leaving to ensure a similar continuity during the search for Brand’s successor.

Adams said he would prefer to avoid a change in Executive Committee leadership as the process likely evolves beyond when his extended term would have ended in April.

Adams also said that staying on as chair of the Executive Committee would be an unnecessary distraction since he has been mentioned as a possible successor to Brand.

“My name already has been and most likely will continue to be connected to the search – no matter how vigorously I will try to state my intentions to continue as president of the University of Georgia,” Adams said. “The fact is that my name has simply too often been mentioned in connection with the search to not run the risk of compromising the integrity of the effort by staying even until my extended term is completed.”

Adams has chaired the Executive Committee since becoming a member in April 2007. He also serves on the Division I Board of Directors and will continue to do so through January to ensure that the Southeastern Conference has representation on that body through the NCAA Convention.

“Like all of my colleagues on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors, I have a day job,” Adams said. “And after four and a half years on these two bodies – and a year longer than I intended – it is time for me to give my full attention to what are some critical future decisions for the University of Georgia.”

Before Ray became president at Oregon State in 2003, he was executive vice president and provost at The Ohio State University and a member of the economics faculty, including as chair of the economics department from 1976-92.

He received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Queens College (New York) and his master’s in economics from Stanford University in 1969. He received his doctorate in economics from Stanford in June 1971.