Veronica Salazar, M.B.A.
Veronica Salazar, M.B.A. serves as the Executive Vice President for Business Affairs and Chief Enterprise Development Officer at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). She joined the university’s executive leadership team in January 2019, providing leadership and guidance for real estate development, operations and finance, human resources, campus infrastructure, and public-private partnerships. She has over 20 years of professional leadership experience in higher education.
As Executive Vice President for Business Affairs, Ms. Salazar has oversight and stewardship of the university’s financial resources. A key member of the President’s Cabinet, she helps to advance UTSA’s vision to become a student success exemplar and nationally competitive research university.
As the university’s Chief Enterprise Development Officer, Ms. Salazar leads the effort to ensure the success of ongoing initiatives, including the Campus Master Plan and the expansion of the UTSA Downtown Campus. Her efforts include leadership on the $91.8 million San Pedro I development, home to the UTSA School of Data Science and National Security Collaboration Center; formal integration with the Southwest School of Art in 2022; current development of the $131 million San Pedro II; and ongoing visioning for the Institute of Texan Cultures (ITC).
Prior to joining UTSA, Ms. Salazar served as the Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer at the University of California, Merced (UC Merced) where she made significant contributions to the success and momentum of the Merced 2020 Project, a $1.3 billion initiative. Before her tenure at UC Merced, Ms. Salazar began her academic career at The University of Texas at Brownsville, now The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, spending 12 years in senior leadership roles focused on finance, budget development, facilities, capital planning and project management.
Ms. Salazar lends her expertise to numerous boards and committees. Most notably, she serves as Chair of the UT Share Executive Committee, treasurer for Centro San Antonio, and member of the the UTSA Roadrunner Foundation.
In August 2021, Ms. Salazar was recognized by the San Antonio Business Journal with a 2021 Women’s Leadership Award, a prestigious recognition designed to honor women who inspire excellence among their peers in the industry and in the San Antonio community. In 2022, Ms. Salazar completed the Governor’s Executive Development Program, enhancing her leadership in state agency operations, strategic planning, and hybrid workforce management. In 2024, she furthered her expertise by attending Harvard’s Institute for Educational Management, focusing on critical higher education issues, including strategic direction and resource management.
