Veronica Salazar
Veronica Salazar serves as the Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President for Business Affairs at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). She joined the executive leadership team at UTSA in January 2019, providing leadership in operations and finance, human resources, campus infrastructure, and public-private partnerships. She has over 20 years of professional leadership experience in higher education.
As Senior Vice President for Business Affairs, Ms. Salazar has oversight and stewardship of the university’s financial resources. A key member of the President’s Cabinet, she helps to advance UTSA’s vision to become a student success exemplar and nationally competitive research university.
As the university’s Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Salazar leads the effort to ensure the success of ongoing initiatives, including the Campus Master Plan and the expansion of the UTSA Downtown Campus. Her efforts include leadership on the $90 million School of Data Science and National Security Collaboration Center, formal partnership with the Southwest School of Art, and visioning for the Institute of Texan Cultures (ITC).
Immediately prior to joining UTSA, Ms. Salazar served as the Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer at the University of California, Merced, where she made significant contributions to the success and momentum of the Merced 2020 Project – a $1.3 billion initiative. Before her tenure at Merced, Ms. Salazar began her academic career at the University of Texas at Brownsville, now Rio Grande Valley, spending 12 years in senior leadership roles focused on finance, budget development, facilities, capital planning and project management, while overseeing a $3.9 million operational budget.
Ms. Salazar lends her expertise as a member of a numerous boards and committees, most notably including Chair of the UT Share Executive Committee, Tri-Chair of the Centro San Antonio Bond Committee, and active member of the UTSA Hispanic Thriving Institution Leadership Council and UTSA Roadrunner Foundation. In August 2021, Ms. Salazar was recognized by the San Antonio Business Journal with a 2021 Women’s Leadership Award – a prestigious recognition designed to accolade honors to women who inspire excellence among their peers in the industry and in the San Antonio community.
Ms. Salazar looks forward to furthering UTSA’s mission as a nationally recognized research university and Hispanic-thriving institution.
