Hampton Sublett is executive director of the Administrative Reorganization and Transformation unit within the Chancellor’s Office, which partners with the VC-CFO to collect, analyze and oversee the implementation of project proposals for the Financial Sustainability Action Plan to help generate $250 million annually to reinvest.

When did you join the University?

10 years ago (July 2005)

What's your day-to-day role in stewarding university resources?

As executive director of the unit charged with imagining new ways to doing business, I have the unique opportunity and privilege to meet with innovators from across our campus and the UC system. My primary responsibilities are to seek out and listen to new ideas, help develop them into proposals and implement those that have the greatest impact on our mission.

My job takes me to all corners of our campus where I meet with interesting people like Bruce Metzler, who runs the Fleet Services Parts Department to discuss inventory management or Doctor Nicola Pusterla to discuss Vet Med clinical efficiencies to Dave Lawlor, Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer to help facilitate the new Financial Sustainability Action Plan. As a result, I find that I’m in a unique position to help establish connections between people that can benefit from collaborating with one another, or I can see the untapped potential in a given idea because I can see how the idea could be applied more broadly, to more units.

What do you like best about working at UC Davis?

I love the diversity of people, ideas, of areas of expertise that I come in contact with on a daily basis here at UC Davis. Everyday I come to work; I learn something new. Having spent 10 years in the high tech private sector, I can say unequivocally, that UC Davis offers far more opportunities to learn and make an impact on your environment, than anything I experienced in the private sector. From Biodigesters, to the Student Farm, to Vet Med’s Nuclear Scans, to the ESSC, to the Master Brewers Program, UC Davis is doing some of the coolest things on earth and I get tremendous satisfaction knowing that my work directly contributes to supporting these endeavors. 

What's the most challenging part of your job?

The most challenging aspect of my job is to continually attempt to strike the right balance between those who are steeped in our existing campus culture and traditions and those who have bold visions for the future. Having come up through the ranks, leading change initiatives at various different levels of the organization, the one constant I continue to observe, is that people accept change at different rates. How I attempt to reduce this challenge is through actively listening to their concerns, ensuring people can see themselves and their role within the proposed change and to remain engaged and accessible throughout the process. 

Tell us something about yourself that most people wouldn’t know. 

I’ve jumped out of a perfectly fine airplane (albeit many decades ago).

What’s something you like to do when you’re not at work?

Travel. Whether it’s the rugged beauty of the Swiss Alps, to the taste of a garden fresh caprese salad in Tuscany, to the arid surroundings of Ayers Rock, to the serenity of Jenny Lake, to the challenge of escaping the bunkers of St. Andrews, I love to travel and experience new places and cultures.