John Carrier Weaver
1971-1977
John Weaver was born on May 21, 1915, in Evanston Illinois. His father, Andrew T. Weaver, was a professor of speech at Wisconsin from 1918 to 1961, and John graduated from the University of Wisconsin High School and then received his AB (1936), AM (1937), and PhD (1942), all in geography, from the University of Wisconsin. From 1940-1942 he was on the staff of the American Geographical Society, from 1942-1944 a researcher for the Division of Geography and Cartography of the U. S. Department of State, and from 1944-1946 an Arctic intelligence officer in the Navy. Weaver taught geography at the University of Minnesota from 1946-1955, then became dean of the College of Arts and Science at Kansas State University (1955-1957). He left Kansas State to become dean of the Graduate College at the University of Nebraska (1957-1961), vice president for research and dean of the Graduate College at the University of Iowa (1961-1964), and vice president for academic affairs at The Ohio State University (1964-1966). From 1966 to 1970, Weaver served as president of the University of Missouri System. On October 27, 1970, the regents elected Weaver president of the University of Wisconsin. and he took office officially in January 1971. When the University of Wisconsin System was created in October of that year, Weaver became its first president. Weaver retired from UW System as of June 30, 1977, and moved to Los Angeles where he was a distinguished professor of geography at the University of Southern California and the first executive director of the Annenberg Center for the Study of the American Experience. He died in Rancho Palos Verdes, California on March 10, 1995.

Hugh Edwin Young
1977-1980
H. Edwin Young was born in Bonne Bay, Newfoundland, Canada on May 3, 1917.  He received his BA (1940)  from the University of Maine and his MA (1942) and PhD (1950)  in economics from the University of Wisconsin.  Young began as an instructor in economics at Wisconsin in 1947 and became a full professor in 1955.  During 1951/52 he was director of the university's School for Workers, and he chaired the Department of Economics from 1953 until 1961 when he became dean of the College of Letters and Science.  In 1965 he left Wisconsin to become president of the University of Maine.  In July 1968 Young returned to Wisconsin as vice president of the university and professor of economics, and in September he was appointed chancellor of the Madison campus. In July 1977, he became president of the UW System and served in that capacity until his retirement in January 1980. He resides in Madison.

Robert Marchant O'Neil
1980-1985
Robert O'Neil was born on October 16, 1934, in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his AB (1956), AM (1957), and LLB (1961) degrees from Harvard University. He taught law at the University of California, Berkeley from 1963 to 1967 then served as a law professor and executive assistant to the president at SUNY-Buffalo before returning to teaching at Berkeley from 1969-71. From 1972-1973 O'Neil was vice president and provost for academic affairs at the University of Cincinnati, and from 1973-1975 executive vice president for academic affairs there. In 1975 O'Neil became vice president of the Bloomington campus of Indiana University. In December 1979 the regents appointed O'Neil president of the University of Wisconsin System, and he took office on February 1, 1980. In January 1985 O'Neil announced that he would leave Wisconsin to assume the presidency of the University of Virginia as of September 1. Katharine Lyall was acting president until Kenneth Shaw assumed office. O'Neill retired as president at Virginia in 1990 and became the founding director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression there. Currently he is director of the center and a professor of law emeritus at Virginia.

Kenneth Alan Shaw
1985-1991
Kenneth Shaw was born in Granite City, Illinois on January 31, 1939. He received a BS from Illinois State University (1961), an EdM from the University of Illinois (1963), and a PhD (1966) in education from Purdue University. Shaw began his career as a teacher at Rich Township High School in Park Forest, Illinois, then went to Illinois State University as an instructor and later assistant to the president. From 1966 to 1977, Shaw was vice president and dean of Towson State University. He left Towson in 1977 to become president of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, and in 1979 he became chancellor of the Southern Illinois University System. The Board of Regents appointed Shaw president of the University of Wisconsin System on September 18, 1985, and he took office on February 1, 1986. Shaw left Wisconsin in August 1991 to become chancellor of Syracuse University. He retired as chancellor there on July 31, 2004.

Katharine Culbert Lyall
1992 - 2004
Katharine Lyall was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on April 26, 1941. She received a BA in economics from Cornell University (1963), an MBA from New York University (1965), and a PhD (1969) in economics from Cornell. Lyall was an economist at Chase Manhattan Bank from 1963-1965, then went to Syracuse University as an assistant professor of economics from 1969-1972. From 1972-1977 she was a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University. Lyall left Johns Hopkins to spend 1977-1979 as a deputy assistant secretary for policy development and research in the Office of Economic Affairs of the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, then returned to Hopkins from 1979-1981 as director of the graduate program in public policy. In 1981 Lyall became vice president for academic affairs of the UW System, and she served as acting president in 1985/86 during the search for Robert O'Neil's successor. When Kenneth Shaw left for Syracuse in August 1991, Lyall was named acting president, and she became president on April 1, 1992. Lyall announced her retirement on February 4, 2004, effective September 1. She will spend the next year as a senior scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in Stanford, California. For more information on President Emeritus Lyall's administration, see the tribute page from UW System.

Kevin Patrick Reilly
2004 -
On July 29, 2004, the Board of Regents approved the appointment of Kevin Reilly, chancellor of UW-Extension , as the sixth president of the UW System, to begin in September. Reilly was born on December 22, 1949, in New York City. He received a BA from the University of Notre Dame (1971) and an MA (1974) and PhD (1979) from the University of Minnesota, all in English. He was assistant director and director of the National Program on Noncollegiate Sponsored Instruction for the New York State Board of Regents from 1979-1984, director of Teaching and Beyond: Career Opportunities for PhDs from 1983-84, and director of the Division of College and University Education for the New York State Board of Regents from 1984-1992. Reilly was Associate Provost for Academic Programs for the State University of New York System from 1992 to 1996 and Interim Secretary of the SUNY System in 1995-1996. Reilly was appointed provost and vice chancellor of UW-Extension in 1996 and chancellor in 2000. For more information on President Reilly, see the University of Wisconsin System Office of the President.