Governor Gary Herbert announced today his concurrence with the School and Institutional Trust Lands Board of Trustees (SITLA) on the appointment of David Ure as the next SITLA Director. “David Ure is a well-known public servant who has long demonstrated the principled, aggressive, hardworking character one would expect in a fourth generation dairy farmer from Kamas,” said Governor Gary R. Herbert in a prepared statement. “We are confident Utah’s schoolchildren and other interested stakeholders will benefit from Dave’s leadership in this position.” Mr. Ure replaces outgoing SITLA Director Kevin Carter, who served in that position since 2003. Under his leadership, SITLA earned more than $1.3 billion and helped grow the Permanent School Fund to just over $2 billion. Also during his tenure, interest and dividends from the Permanent Fund have grown from $8 million in 2003 to $45.8 million this school year. Mr. Ure is currently a member of the Summit County Council, a position he will resign from prior to taking this position on January 1, 2016. In the past, he served 14 years in the Utah Legislature and six years on the SITLA Board of Trustees. His wife, Mae, is a school teacher at South Summit Elementary School. “The SITLA Board received over 130 qualified applications for this position,” said Tim Donaldson, School Children’s Trust Director at the Utah State Office of Education, which administers the School LAND Trust Program. “It was a very thorough, transparent process, with input from numerous stakeholders.” Donaldson added that the money generated from SITLA’s large surface and mineral estates is approaching 2 percent of the overall public education budget and schools need that number to continue to grow and provide quality education “SITLA has been a great success story for the past 20 years” said SITLA Board Chairman Louie Cononelos, a former school teacher and retired mining executive. “When we learned Kevin Carter intended to retire after 34 years of successful service to the schoolchildren of this state, we made sure that recruitment for this pending vacancy received special attention and scrutiny. Dave recognizes the need for responsible natural resource development and the Board is confident that he will provide the right leadership going forward.” Mr. Ure will start at SITLA as Director Designee this fall and become director for a four-year term effective January 1, 2016 to January 1, 2020.