Daniel Greenstein has played a number of roles in US and UK higher education[citation needed]. He was director of the "postsecondary success strategy" program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.[1] In 2018, he was named the fifth chancellor of Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education.[2] He is also a board member of Ridge-Lane Limited Partners, a venture capital firm.[3]
While directing the Gates Foundation's Postsecondary Success division, he worked with other higher education leaders nationwide on initiatives intended to boost educational-attainment, in particular among low-income and minority students.[4] Before joining the Gates Foundation, he was Vice Provost for Academic Planning, Programs, and Coordination at the University of California's Office of the President, where he was responsible for a range of information, publishing, and broadcast services (the California Digital Library, the University of California Press, and UCTV), off-campus instructional programs (e.g. Education Abroad) as well as academic planning and accountability.[citation needed] With Christopher Edley, he led an initiative to evaluate the effectiveness of online instruction in UC's undergraduate curriculum and, more generally, as a strategy for expanding access to high-quality university education.[citation needed]
Greenstein has served as Director of the California Digital Library (2002–7), of the Digital Library Federation (1999–2002) and was founding director of the Arts and Humanities Data Service and co-director of the Resource Discovery Network, both in the UK.[citation needed] He holds degrees from the University of Oxford (DPhil), where he was a member of Corpus Christi College, and Pennsylvania (MA, BA) and began his career as a member of the history faculty at the University of Glasgow.[citation needed]
As chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), Greenstein faced criticism in 2021 for threatening to dissolve the system,[5][6][7] which led to state representative Peter Schweyer calling for his resignation.[8] He also came under fire for a workforce reduction mandate he ordered during his tenure, which failed to meet contract requirements and was later litigated at the state level in Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court.[9] Greeinstein announced his pending resignation on July 23, 2024.[10] In September of 2024, Baker Tilly, a public accounting firm, announced that Greenstein would be joining the company in November of the same year.[11][12]