Alexander E. “Sandy” Bracken served as the 19th president of the University of Colorado in 2000. He then succeeded former CU President Hank Brown as the Newton Chair, which supports and helps coordinate the activities of several marquee leadership programs at CU Boulder, including the Presidents Leadership Class, the Leadership Residential Academic Program and the Leadership Certificate program.

Bracken served as executive director of the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship at the Business School at CU Denver from 2001-07. Before his service as CU president in 2000, he served as vice president for public affairs for 19 years with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., and before that, as assistant professor of history at Anderson College in Anderson, Indiana.