Please join us in congratulating Leslie on her retirement. She is a huge part of our organization and the College of Engineering. We will miss her dearly and can't wait to hear about the travel abroad she has planned!
Leslie's parting words:
Santa Barbara is such an exceptional place, with its natural beauty, its high-tech businesses and its world renown engineers and scientists and campus. I have had the unique luck of being part of each aspect and I realize that very few people have had such an opportunity. But what has made my life most rich is having the ability to work with every one of you. I am sure that the next Director of Corporate Business Development will hold their relationship with you as treasure as I have.
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"Leslie has been a fantastic colleague who has diligently advanced the relationships the College of Engineering has had with corporate partners for several decades. I wish her the best in retirement, and she will be sorely missed. Leslie is incredibly smart and knows the scope of the research that is done here at UCSB inside and out (in a very dean-like way) but is also kind, funny, approachable, patient, and just a pleasure to work with. But I think her most important attribute is perseverance - being able to navigate the university/industry landscape against a changing economy, and against the backdrop of 4 different deans and the concomitant cultural shifts those changes in leadership brought.
I believe Leslie is the only CoE dean’s staffer to have served longer than me, so I feel there is a new weight on my shoulders as the “senior” person around these parts. I will do my best to uphold the professionalism that Leslie brought to the the dean’s area."
-Glenn Beltz
"The technology high impact global reputation of UCSB Engineering, Life and Physical
Sciences only happens by bringing together cultures made up of highly talented and
independently motivated individuals. Some have likened this to the successful, and nearly impossible, “herding of cats”. Leslie Edwards, as Director of Corporate Business
Development at UCSB has provided the guidance and necessary tools to industry
collaborators, UCSB faculty, students and administrators to make the high technology
impact a reality. Thank you, Leslie!"
-Galen Stucky
"Leslie has been a mentor to me for over seven years. It has been an absolute joy working alongside her through long event days, traveling to company visits and all those miles we have logged in walking from meeting to meeting on campus. She is one of the most knowledgable people I have ever met and anyone who has worked with her would say the same. Thankfully we have formed a close friendship, so even though I will miss my work office neighbor, I will still get to see her smiling face!"
-Ashley Antoon
