Erskine Bowles - Since 2005

Since 2005

On October 3, 2005, Bowles was elected by the University of North Carolina's Board of Governors to succeed Molly Corbett Broad as President of the system, even though some suggest that the Board of Governors broke the law in not holding public hearings in the hiring process. One of his most significant appointments thus far has been that of Holden Thorp as the tenth chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bowles also spoke at the campus memorial service in memory of slain student body president Eve Carson.

On February 12, 2010, Bowles announced his retirement from the UNC System. Bowles was replaced by Thomas W. Ross.

Bowles is also a member of the board of directors of General Motors, Morgan Stanley, Norfolk Southern Corporation, and North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and serves on the North Carolina Advisory Board of DonorsChoose.

Bowles was appointed in 2010 to co-chair President Barack Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform with Alan K. Simpson. The commission deadlocked, and the co-chairs' report on a policy for budget deficit reduction was not adopted by the Obama administration. Surprised by the rejection, Bowles later stated he believed that Obama decided to abandon the report and let Paul Ryan go first, and then he would look like the sensible guy in the game, based on advice from his political advisers and over the objections of his economic team.

On September 7, 2011, Facebook, Inc. announced that it had named Bowles to its board.

After North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue announced that she would not run for a second term in 2012, Bowles was mentioned as a possible candidate, and polling put him almost even with likely Republican nominee Pat McCrory. But on February 2, 2012, Bowles announced that he would not seek the governorship.

On August 14, 2012, Bowles gave an interview with the Daily Caller where he asserted that he is not "backing away" from his praise of Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan. Said Bowles: “I think he’s smart. I think he’s intellectually curious. I think he is honest, straightforward and sincere. And I think he does have a serious budget out there — it doesn’t mean I agree with it by any stretch of the imagination. But I’m not going to act like I don’t like him or that I don’t have some real respect for him." Along with his praise of Ryan he also had criticism of the current government. Said Bowles: “The people of this country get it. They know that the fiscal path this country is on is not sustainable and that these deficits of over a trillion dollars a year are a cancer that in time will destroy our Country from within..." Despite his praise of Ryan, Bowles says he plans on voting for President Obama in November. “Who I vote for is my business, but I am certainly a registered Democrat and I’m proud to be so,” Bowles said in the phone interview. “And I certainly envision voting for the president for sure.”