University of California, Davis, Chancellor Gary S. May has appointed Robert Segar to serve as planning director of Aggie Square. Segar currently serves as associate vice chancellor for campus planning and environmental stewardship, a position he will continue to hold.

As Aggie Square planning director, Segar will be responsible for stewarding the many people, programs and activities that are pivotal to moving the innovation hub to the next level.              

“Bob has played a central role in the growth and transformation of the UC Davis campus over the last 25 years, and I can’t think of anyone more qualified to live and breathe what Aggie Square should become,” May said. “He understands the complexities involved in such a major project, and he has a demonstrated ability to work with a variety of communities to identify and achieve shared goals.”

Segar is known for his lead role in planning the UC Davis “front door” along Interstate 80, anchored by the Buehler Alumni Center, the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, the Graduate School of Management at Gallagher Hall, the Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, the Manetti Shrem Museum and the Welcome Center/Conference Center/Hyatt Hotel, as well as public landscapes including the teaching vineyard, Vanderhoef Quad and improvements to the UC Davis Arboretum. Working with arboretum leadership, he has helped reinvent the campus landscape as a sustainable public garden that provides meaningful learning and leadership opportunities to students and community members.

“I have always viewed campus planning as an opportunity to connect people to their place and to each other, and I am thrilled the chancellor asked me to dive into this major initiative,” Segar said. “I’m looking forward to working with community members, potential industry partners, faculty and students, all of whom have a vested interest in how we move forward.”

Aggie Square will serve as a collaborative technology and innovation campus that leverages the university’s strengths to become the catalyst for economic change, creates jobs for its graduates and helps spur the economic vitality of the broader Sacramento region. It will serve as a model public-private partnership, increasing technology transfer and creating opportunities for residents in the community and region. In April, Chancellor May and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg announced plans to locate Aggie Square on the UC Davis Health campus, along the Stockton Boulevard-Broadway corridor.

In the months ahead, Segar will spend time with internal and external communities to better understand their respective concerns and ideas. He’ll also determine staffing and other needs.

Segar graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in urban studies and has a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of Michigan.